A different Ash Wednesday model

The statement Carnival is not a party has been repeated in this column as a reaction to negative attitudes about the festival and its place in our lives.

The point of the statement is to very deliberately force a change in the conversation about Carnival and contribute to a greater understanding of its value.

The Ash Wednesday alignment continues to be problematic.

In 2018, because of where the day falls, the Carnival season will be “short,” with Carnival Monday and Tuesday on February 12 and 13.

The calendar already shows exactly when every fete, competition and show is happening. For us, that gives about three weeks to rehearse for Kambule on Carnival Friday morning, competing even more so now with the other major activities such as Panorama, Calypso Fiesta, and Dimanche Gras.

These other events impact us, because in a period when dancers and performers are in demand, almost everyone is on an extreme hustle.

Artists need to survive through their craft but what ends up happening in the industry is unhealthy, as it becomes more about the job than the truth of the portrayal.

Carnival practitioners already know that the “Ash Wednesday model” is not sustainable. By June this year, bands will begin to display their products online to international customers and locally through their fetes. Pan groups will choose their songs, wire-benders will get busy, song writers are already working. So, in reality what we have is a year-round industry that culminates on two days in February.

Which brings me to the issue I raised at the start of the article, about the language that is used with respect to adjusting the attendance requirements for students after the festival.

Allowing people to rest and recuperate after creating the mas is entirely different to giving “time off.” Time off implies yet another holiday, so clearly this idea will be met with resistance.

Even the sensible suggestion by the ministry to reduce the August vacation and make use of the time at Carnival was resisted. Further, opinion leaders are making it seem like they are being forced to give in to some kind of after-Carnival “lack of productivity” scenario.

A more useful perspective would be to recognise that the people who create, produce and present a national festival must have time to recharge the energies they put out over a period of months to bring joy to people all over the world. With this understanding, we can begin to vision a week of post-Carnival-related exhibitions, workshops, lectures and live activities in communities across TT.

For instance, as people cool down in Maracas, they can browse an interactive exhibition on the link between communities like Santa Cruz and Blanchisseuse to Carnival. People in the South can find out about the history of resistance and Carnival, and in Tobago they can learn about the evolution of the festival there.

Another important point is that Carnival was initially linked to emancipation, celebrated by the former enslaved on August 1. As part of the ongoing campaign to restrict the celebration, an 1849 ordinance legally moved Carnival from August to the two days before Lent, mimicking the timing of European carnivals.

So, in many ways shutting down our Carnival on Ash Wednesday is not natural. We need to accept that it’s either time to either get rid of this model or find a way to make it work. Resistance is futile anyway.

The people have already spoken.

D a r a Healy is a performance artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN