CARNIVAL STORY
STARTING THE MAS
By Terry Joseph
Episode Nine
Express
February 29, 2000
Page 24
The time at which J'Ouvert begins has been altered on several
occasions and for a mixture of reasons.
The
primary concern has always been about security, given the large number of
disguised (and presumably inebriated) revelers parading the streets at the
start of Carnival. In addition, it has
been felt by successive Carnival administrations that the later J'Ouvert extends,
the greater its negative effect on the quality of mas and music on the streets
on Monday afternoon.
At
the time when steelbands ruled the fetes, there was an informal agreement that
J'Ouvert could begin when the Carnival Sunday night parties finished, but
particular police officials have, on occasion, stopped attempts to begin the
mas earlier than agreed.
After
many years of beginning at 6 a.m., the start of the street parade has been
rolled back, firstly to 2 a.m., then brought forward again to 4 a.m. where it
currently stands.
But
when Carnival started, its only clear limitation was that the festivities
should come to a close at midnight on Shrove Tuesday (the day preceding the
start of Lent).
Until
1833, its starting time is nowhere recorded as an issue. On occasion, the festivity began immediately
after Christmas among the upper class, where it continued nightly, with the
masked balls and house-to-house partying going for the duration of the season.
Up
to the time of emancipation in 1834, the slaves were still confined to the
estates, but there were free blacks who took to the streets for the three
official Carnival days. Back then, the
Carnival parade started on Sunday. But
that choice of opening day caused the first of many domestic conflicts suffered
by the festival. By the end of the 19th
century, clashes between masqueraders and the authorities were both predictable
and bloody.
In
1833, Sergeant Peake, who was in charge of the police, attempted to stop the
Sunday mas, on the premise that it was the Sabbath day. He was stoned for his efforts. Ten years later his point was effectively
made when the Carnival was restricted to the Monday and Tuesday before Lent,
beginning at midnight Sunday. Interestingly,
just last month the San Fernando Mayor threw out the suggestion that Sunday
should be included as a street festival day.
In
1989, the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) actually gave the nod to a street
parade on Carnival Sunday, as long as it started after morning mass.
That
Sunday plan, described as Pan Day (a parade exclusive to the steelbands), was
part of a proposal by the inaugural (1986 to 1991) National Carnival Commission
(NCC) to extend Carnival to five days.
The
plan was scrapped after public picong boldly questioned the competence of the
authorities at producing the existing two-day parade and suggested - however
unfairly - that the Commission would only make a greater mess if entrusted with
an extended version. Last year the NCBA
again made such a suggestion, but distrust of the mas men's motives by Pan
Trinbago scuttled the idea.
J'Ouvert's
major components are pan music, old mas and costumed bands, some of which go
for little else but mud, oil or coloured body painting.
By 1960,
the steelband Bomb Tune competition had been formalized, although the friendly
rivalry between bands from East and West of Charlotte Street in Port of Spain
existed for many years before.
Over
the years, pan was to lose its place in the wider Carnival music line-up
largely as a result of unforced errors.