Caribanna: From good to bad to worse

"Without question, carnival had become a symbol of freedom for the broad mass of the population and not merely a season for frivolous enjoyment. It had a ritualistic significance, rooted in the experience of slavery and in the celebration of freedom from slavery.....Adopted by the Trinidad people it become a deeply meaningful anniversary of deliverance from the most hateful form of human bondage

-Professor Errol Hill in The Trinidad Carnival, 1972.


Every year in July for as long as I could remember as a child over summer vacation, my aunie and uncle always took me to Caribanna. Caribanna is a yearly festival that takes place in Toronto Ontario. This is not to be confused with the Eastern Parkway parade in brooklyn every september. Thwe crowds for Caribanna are much bigger this may not always be a good thing. It had been a long standing tradition for us to arrive early, collect plates of food and watch the parade.

As a young child I did most of my watching on my uncle Cebert's shoulders. However as I have gotten older the visits have become less frequent and we now watcho the parade comfortably at home. For this blog on traditions I was left thinking about the article that we read for the first class. At Jets Game A Tradition of Harrassment, reminded me of the slew of incidents that have gone on at Caribanna festivals since 1996. When I attended my first festival I had to of been no more than 8 or 9 years old, yet the ammount of violence only seemed to increase as I became older. Visually Caribanna is stimulating, there are people of different nationalities that come to dance at the festival as well as steel drummers and performers who parade up and down the grounds dressed in decorative costumes on stilts. Although I didnt notice this as a child there also seemed to be less of a concern with the idea of gender at these parties.