Carnival!

What do vampires, donkey riding Jesus, and stilt walkers have in common? Why nothing, of course, but at Karnaval they all seem to find their own place in the festivities. This past week, while most of us celebrate Mardi Gras, a day of gluttonous indulging, the Caribbean and other pockets of Creole in the world (New Orleans, for example) celebrate Carinval (Karnaval if you’re of the Haitian persuasion). And this year, Karnaval just so happened to be in Cap-Haitien. And it was quite the week.

Preparations for Karnaval have been occurring for the last two months – roads have been improved, trash cleaned from the streets, buildings painted and spruced up, and decorations strung up everywhere. It is an exciting sight to see – mostly because the city will benefit from these improvements for far longer than just this week. Although Karnaval is traditionally held in Port-au-Prince, President Martelly has moved festivities to different regions throughout the country over the past few years. This provides these regions with infrastructure improvements and gives them recognition for their uniqueness.

So officially, Karnaval began on Sunday, but the two weeks before were mini-vals in getting everyone super siked for the real deal. This amounted to people dressed in costumes walking down the middle of the street and congesting traffic blowing whistles and other things. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night, things really kicked up with parades, music (live bands and the standard hot new single playing ear bleeding loud on repeat). Parades a plenty, each major musician in Haiti gets their own float and they basically battle of the bands it out until one is declared the winner. This happens at about midnight to dawn every night but especially on Tuesday night. During the day other parades happen and these are a hodge-podge of all things Haiti. One group will be voodoo vampires with little bats following them everywhere. While the next group might be dancers dressed up in bright green and yellow costumes. Other groups might dress up mock current politicains or the military, while others might cover themselves in sugar cane or other plants. Taken separately, each group of people seem to be its own parade but together they all make up what is good and bad about Haiti and it all fits together. (Think of it being a Fourth of July, Halloween, Arbor Day, Macy’s Day, and election campaign parade all in one…. aka what is both awesome and annoying about America).

So what is Karnaval? What is the purpose of dressing up in costumes, playing music, and having parades for days on end in the middle of the night? Well, Karnaval, like Mardi Gras occurs right before Lent ending on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It’s celebrated all over the world, particularly in countries with strong Catholic leanings. The event is a huge block party, masquerade, parade, etc and meant to prepare everyone for a period of prayer, fasting, reflection…. While Karnaval in Europe mostly focuses on the celebration before Lent, Caribbean Karnaval and particularly Haiti uses the event for more than just a religious celebration. It is a time when the people can dress up in costume and mock politicians and the government, bring awareness to a social problem, organize people around an issue, and celebrate their country.

My time at Karnaval was spent in the day for a number of reasons; I didn’t feel like getting pick-pocketed, I wanted to actually be able to see the costumes and everything, and I wanted to be able to leave when it got loud, crowded, sensory overwhelming. At night, you pretty much get stuck there so I played it straight up Golden Girls style and was in early and out by dark. Still, I got to see so much and share the festivities with many. I watched one of the parades for a while, made friends with a Haiti Boy Scout who was volunteering for security. Learned way more about Karnaval and Haiti from him than I did via guys from work and my own research and he was delighted that he was basically our private tour guide for three hours. My favorite floats and groups of people were a social movement group who did military like exercises about Haiti “We fall down, We crawl through it, We get back up, We stand together, We move forward”. (Yes, it moved my olive clothed Che-loving heart close to revolutionary tears). I also loved all of the different dancing. Some troupes danced more traditional and had drummers with them while others made their area just one big party and invited everyone to dance with them. It was a great couple of hours to watch and see and experience. Plus, I got a Prestige shirt which pretty much the most awesome thing. I’m now one of the cool kids.

It might sound that Karnaval is all puppies and roses, and while it was a great party, it did have its controversy. Without being too political or one-sided – and fully acknowledging that it is pretty much impossible for me to do that I will try to explain. Martelly is a well-known Haitian singer, alias “Sweet Mickey”. He became famous for his anti-government songs and the theatrical way he mocked political leaders back in the day. Now as President, this year he banned nine bands from performing at Karnaval because of their own political leanings (aka – they don’t agree with how Martelly is running things). One of the band members was his own cousin. A bit hypocritical you might think? Well, yes. And many Haitians felt the same way. Though it was estimated that over three million people would be at Karnaval this year, maybe half showed up. And while I can’t speak to the night’s events or the days when I wasn’t there, the people I did talk to seemed a little nervous about speaking to openly and loudly against Martelly. Anyways, despite the controversy and despite the low-turnout (which still seemed like a lot of people to me) Karnaval was great fun and I’m more than happy I was in Cap to celebrate.