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CARNAVAL À JACMEL
Carnival derives from the Latin carne vale, meaning
“good-bye to flesh,” and precedes Lent, when the eating
of meat is forbidden. Held during the days before Ash Wednesday,
the first day of Lent, Carnival offers a time of popular celebration,
gluttony, and drinking in anticipation of 40 days of abstention,
reflection, and contemplation followed by Easter – a time
of death, resurrection and renewal.
Carnival, also known as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday),
includes processions, floats, music and dance and its participants
dress in flamboyant costumes. A form of play, the masquerade
reverses or inverts everyday reality. Humans dress as animals
and animals dress as humans. Men and women cross dress. It is
also a time of political license when social commentary and satire
can be expressed by the normally disenfranchised.
The highly creative carnival style of Jacmel is known
for papier-mâché masks and masquerade outfits as
well as body and face painting. European-style medieval morality
plays are performed in the streets with themes of battle between
good and evil, between devils and angels. Black hairy gorillas
represent djabs (devils). Fantasy animals as well as giraffes,
lions and tigers appear in little plays.
One of the standard groups in Jacmel carnival is the
chaloskas, who dress in black military garb, stove pipe hats
and wear masks with red lips and animal teeth. They perform politically
charged mock trials and read lists of offenses that satirize
the Tonton Macoutes, the secret police of the Duvalier era.
from "Visions of Haiti: Vodou and Carnaval
à Jacmel" - Albany Institute of History & Art |
