J'ouvert

J'ouvert (pronounced 'juuvay'), is a large street party during Carnival in the eastern Caribbean region (celebrated the day after Christmas in St. Kitts). It involves calypso/soca bands and their followers dancing through the streets. The festival starts well before dawn and peaks a few hours after sunrise. Another part of the tradition involves throwing colored powders, water, smearing paint, mud, or oil on the participants. (In St. Kitts, we use body paint)  

J'ouvert is derived from the French jour ouvert, or day open (morning).The origins of street parties associated with J'ouvert coincide with the emancipation from slavery in 1838. Emancipation provided Africans with the opportunity to not only participate in Carnival, but to embrace it as an expression of their new found freedom. Some theorize that some J'ouvert traditions are carried forward in remembrance of civil disturbances in Port of Spain, Trinidad, when the people smeared themselves with oil or paint to avoid being recognized.
 

Some of our EC78ers, who I am beginning to love =) 

The point is to have a bunch of 'troupes' that provide food, drinks, t-shirts and music to compete. This year there were about 7 troupes, but ours was honestly the only one I even noticed. A bunch of the PCV's (and their respective visitors) joined the mother of all J'ouvert troupes: the LIME Xtreme J'ouvert Jungle; the winning troupe for the past ten years. We paid a registration fee to join the troupe which included our costume (a t-shirt), whistle, bandana, sports bottle (we didn't get ours), body paint, food (goat water & cook-up), and drinks throughout the route. And a party starting at midnight (we didn't show up till past 2.30 am) at the TDC staff complex.

 Part of the big crowd we were a part of

 

I think Geoff and I were trying to make ugly faces

 

I unfortunately did not realize that the paint does not wash off and have ruined some of my clothes. Oh well, they will be used again for J'ouvert next year!

 

We arrived at the staff complex (basically a big field) at about 2.30/3:00 a.m. to find around a couple hundred people already drinking and partying. After getting brushed up against by a few sticky people and realizing they had wet paint on them, I decided I wanted some of my own and convinced Will, Julie Ann and Cynthia to join me. So we found the people walking around with buckets of different colored paints and let ourselves be covered.

The drink van that was chugging along behind us. You had to jog along beside it as you ordered anything. 

At around 4:30 a.m. the music truck finally pulled out of the parking lot and we hit the streets and began to follow/dance behind it. We danced from the parking lot to Bay Road to downtown and then performed several 'laps' around the circus and downtown, at snail speed I might add. The total distance covered was probably no more than a couple of miles after we arrived in town, but it took forever to dance your way behind the crazy crowd. I think J'ouvert is just one of those things that simply can't be explained, it has to be experienced. West Indians are crazy dancers. Add the fact that I can't dance in the first place and all I can say is that I'm just glad that everyone was probably too drunk to care about the fact that I looked like a fool.

The sun rising with people showing up to watch the troupes parade around town

 

 

We didn't finish all the laps with everyone. Although I had intended on not falling asleep, after taking the LONGEST shower ever to get the paint out of my hair and everywhere else (I don't know how it ended up in some places), we passed out.

Some people got tired and sat on the sides to take breaks 

Michele said I was the last person she expected to join J'ouvert from our group because I'm 'too shy and quiet'. She also didn't expect me to give the swearing speech in either, so I guess I'm proving her wrong. I can't wait for J'ouvert again next year. Thankfully there's still some more of carnival to come...