Celebrate the music, mas

Debbie Jacob

WELCOME to TT Carnival Monday, 2025. “We are thankful,” Farmer Nappy sings. “Jump up and wave. Be thankful for life. Be thankful for a new day.” It’s good advice.

Every Carnival we meet here on the streets of TT to celebrate our culture’s history, music and creativity. This is the place where the sacred and the profane collide.

Carnival is the musical antidote for all the bad and sad news that bombard us for the rest of the year. Carnival gives us hope and happiness. This is the one place we can count on good vibes.

We celebrate our roots and our individuality by marching through time with blue devils, midnight robbers, bats, and burrokeets, ushering in J’Ouvert and reminding us all to cherish history, a lesson forgotten for the rest of the year when we tear down our historic buildings. This obliteration of our history needs to stop.

Carnival reminds us that if we don’t care about our history, we can’t appreciate the present or the future.

As darkness wanes and the day dawns on Carnival Monday, pretty mas claims the road. Feathers, sequins, and skimpy costumes that leave little to the imagination create controversy and form a stark contrast with traditional sailors, fancy Indians and minstrels who appear like magic between large mas bands.

There’s a place for everybody and everything in Carnival. Nostalgia and controversy go hand in hand.

Steelbands thread their way through the streets, their music ringing out and contrasting with deejay trucks. We all come together on Carnival, put our differences and worries aside, and celebrate a rich cultural heritage and an unshakable belief that “all o’ we is one.”

Yes, “home is where the heart is. Everyone has a place they are attached to,” Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin, and Mical Teja sing, reminding us not only of the power of music, but also the power of collaboration.

Here, on these streets, claimed by masqueraders, all of the musical experiences from the season’s fetes, parties or “pardees” converge. Finally, there is a song, Pardy, that celebrates the only way I can say “party.” Visitors and immigrants like me have a part to play in this celebration too.

Listen closely to Pardy and don’t forget one of its most important commands, “Find the middle.” This is important to remember in a world that is becoming increasingly polarised.

We should also recognise how Carnival celebrates our Creole language, something we take for granted. Read the placards in ole mas, listen to extempo, calypso, and soca, and recognise that Creole is the language of Carnival because it celebrates our Caribbean identity and culture. Neither the colonisers nor our colonial education could rob us of our language.

Carnival reflects who we are at the core: lovely, upbeat, and inclusive. In this space, we form a lasting expression of camaraderie.

Every Carnival upholds tradition and brings something new. Some Carnivals feature music that mirrors our rage, but this Carnival has a collective energy – mellow, yet upbeat, hopeful, and full of pride. The energy for many calypso and soca hits came from the rhythm and groove – not a frantic tempo. Memorable melodies prevailed. The music is sweet.

Everywhere I went, people said, “This Carnival has good music.” Yes, indeed, we had good, danceable smile-worthy, heart-warming music. The music always knows what we need, and this year that was a reminder of gentler times.

Carnival brings co-operation and caring. It is still the people’s newspaper. We lament the loss of double entendre and humour in calypso, but it will return. Our first official calypso monarch, Growling Tiger, once told me that the music never vanishes. Music is a fossil memory, explained best by Guyanese novelist Wilson Harris.

For two days, we can forget how politics divide us. Hopefully, on Ash Wednesday, we can face our issues – crime, education prejudice, unkindness and anger with a new creative energy. We know these little islands have heart, soul, and history that can never be denied or suppressed. We are always more powerful than we think. We just need to find ways to channel that energy and power outside of Carnival.

For now, we celebrate the music and the mas. Remember the calypso greats no longer with us: Growling Tiger, Spoiler, Lord Kitchener, Shadow – the list is endless. Their names pop up in songs every Carnival, reminding us that Carnival energy is timeless.

So, drink a cup of Cocoa Tea with Kes and hit the road. Celebrate! Take a jump. Chip.

Happy Carnival, dear readers. Be safe, and play yourself.