St. Lucia's CARNIVALLLLL
Today was an action packed day!!! My last blog post was last week and I apologize! Our trainings are pretty intense Monday-Friday and after training, I usually help out around the house and by that time, I’m way too tired to write! I’m going to try to post at least 2 times a week though!!!
SO!! I attended my first Carnival celebration and man was it....... a lot. Lol. There’s Carnival on most Caribbean islands during summer/fall months and St. Lucia’s celebration fell right at the perfect time! I went to the celebration with other PCT’s and boy, were we in for it!
Two days of street parades featuring live bands and DJ music, and of course the EYE-catching, stunning Carnival costumes men and women wear. Overall, it was a nice experience. I’ve heard it about it for many years prior to being on the island so I atleast wanted to check it out (and I only live 30 mins away from downtown) so it worked out! The food was amazingggg. There was wide selection of things you could choose from. There was hot dogs, hot dogs on sticks, grilled + fried chicken, fish cakes, fried + grilled fish, French fries, Lucian baked pastries, ice cream, SNOW CONES, and a plethora of other food choices!
Now the celebration!!
But first... what the heck is Carnival?
So some history: Carnival in the Caribbean is tied to colonialism, religious conversion, and ultimately freedom and celebration. The festival originated with Italian Catholics in Europe, and it later spread to the French and Spanish, who brought the pre-Lenten tradition with them when they settled (and brought slaves to) Trinidad, Dominica, Haiti, Martinique, and other Caribbean islands. Carnival (to abstain from red meat) is suppose to be a “Catholic” & “Christian” celebration buuttt 
There was nothing there that tied to Jesus! 🧐 Jesus would not attend Carnival lol. So I’m not sure how Christianity is the focus or part of the tradition...buuuut that’s enough for the history lesson! Definitely google it for a better description.
With all that being said, it was a very aesthetically pleasing display of fashion, color, and creativity! The costumes were truly well crafted! Each band (the group of women and men who 'jump' the celebration) had different colors and each color represented something! That’s the part I really enjoyed- the fashion of course. (!!SIDE NOTEEE: TO BE APART OF A BAND IT'S AROUND $1500 EC WHICH IS $550 US DOLLARS, isn't that something!!) The people who were weren't apart of bands (like myself) also came in very festive clothes and it was interesting to see people’s take on carnival in their own cultural way. There were attendees from ALL parts of the world so seeing the different shades, races, ethnicities all coming together in fun, friendship and good times was a nice sight.
It was truly an amazing display of Caribbean culture- mainly of how high they regard the value of Togetherness. I honestly feel like everyone in St. Lucia knows each other! The local woman I went with stopped and briefly made jokes with like every other person we passed!!
ME: Soooo you know everybody basically??
But seriously, It's such a close knit community!
Would I attend another Carnival? It may be a shocking conclusion.. but I don’t think so! The nudity, the extreme drunkenness, the THRIST, the little kids twerking, it just kinda bothered my spirit. So I won’t attend but no shame for those who do attend!! I think it's a cool experience to attend atleast one if you're into that kinda thing.
Now that was my real Carnival thoughts and feelings!!!! I’m glad I attended though! For more pictures, check out my Instagram page: @astylezx!
Also-- please feel free to comment or message your own thoughts! Should the posts be longer? More in depth or what? I'm trying to keep it relatively medium in length because I know some of us don't like to read essayysss so let me know!
Talk soon ;)
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