Creole Festivals
Creolization is often constructed or mediated through rituals – like birth, death or naming ceremonies. At a collective level, fêtes, street parades, festivals and carnivals provided the space for popular and public affirmations of shared cultures. Carnival is perhaps the most famous Creole festival – the carnivals in Brazil and Trinidad attract worldwide attention and massive tourist revenues. There are disputed origins of the word ‘carnival’, but it seems likely that the Latin ‘carnem’ (meat) formed the first part of the word. In this theory, for some two weeks before Lent (when Christians were enjoined to fast), there was a prolonged ‘letting go’ or ‘farewell’ to meat. In effect one succumbed to bodily pleasures because you knew you would soon have to give them up.Creole festivals have also been strongly supported by Creole-influenced states, regions and cities. For example the governments of Martinique and the Seychelles have promoted international Creole festivals marked by dancing, music, poetry and folklore as Creole people across the world have sought to mark out their distinctive identities.
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