What is carnival?
It is an annual celebration of life found in many countries of the world. And in fact, by learning more about carnival we can learn more about ourselves and a lot about accepting and understanding other cultures.
Jamaica carnival is a beautiful example of how carnival can unite the world. For in this small nation, the beliefs and traditions of many cultures have come together, forget their differences to celebrate life!
On Sunday April 22, 1990, Jamaica Carnival greeted the masses and achieved what many had unsuccessfully tried before. Thanks to Byron Lee along with his small band who defied the odds and came together to plan what has since grown to become the biggest, brightest event in Jamaica.
The celebration kicks off in early January with soca events across the Island. The actual Road March takes place on Easter Sunday and even though in the past caused much controversy with Christian groups, the celebration of life through carnival has proven that this is one event that is here to stay.
Festival
JAMAICA FESTIVAL a national salute to local talent and ingenuity in local vernacular "a bam bam." How appropriate that the phrase introduced to the nation in 1966 by Toots and the Maytals in their winning festival song, can be used to aptly describe Jamaica Festival itself. A major training opportunity for thousands of Jamaicans, Jamaica Festival's mandate was (and still is) to focus attention on "Things Jamaican" Jamaican creativity and cultural awareness across socio-economic levels. As Edward Seaga, then JLP Minister of Development and Welfare, spelled out in his Long-term Development Plan for Jamaica (1963-8), festival was integral to national development because it was a way of giving Jamaicans a sense of who we are, and what our history and culture is all about. These concerns took on added importance during that immediate post-Independence period.
Seaga remembers the 1962 Independence Festival celebrations which he helped coordinate and which laid the groundwork for the real start of festival as we know it today, as being aimed at commemorating a substantial achievement with the excitement and enthusiasm it deserved. Unlike other countries where the sheer achievement of independence was itself an occasion for joyous celebration, marked by a specific day, Jamaica's independence was achieved gradually and a convenient day near to Emancipation Day was chosen (the first Monday in August) to mark Independence. There was therefore a need he said, for "something to mobilize the spirit of the people". That something became Jamaica Festival, the first of which was really held in 1963, on the anniversary of the previous year's Independence celebrations. Festival has since been staged every succeeding year without fail. Although popular support for it has varied at times over the past 4 decades, it has nevertheless become part of the formal Jamaican development landscape a visible and tangible expression of the vitality and range of Jamaican culture and creativity.
In a 1968 presentation to the House, Seaga sought to institutionalise and formalise festival proceedings by proposing to establish the Jamaica Festival Commission. The Act was passed unanimously. In 1980 another Bill was passed in Parliament making The Festival Commission the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), the name by which it is known today, and a name well suited to its work which by then had become entwined with cultural development. Today, the JCDC is also responsible for organizing aspects of the country's annual independence celebrations.
Today, the JCDC falls under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development. The administrative structure still maintains a large volunteer-base particularly at the parish level where a JCDC officer is appointed to oversee activities. Total JCDC staff numbers over 100 and includes National Youth Service (NYS) members and holiday workers.
Current programmes reap the benefit of the early Festival movement's attempt to establish a comprehensive presentation of all the arts imaginable, from the graphic to the culinary, to the performance and the literary. As a result, they can now be called traditional festival events. These include Art and Photography, Craft, Literary Arts, the National Mento Band competition, Dances, Speech (in standard and Jamaican English), Drama, Music, the National Festival Song and Gospel Song competitions as well as the Miss Jamaica Festival Queen Contest.
The best of the Festival of the Performing Arts (dance, speech, drama and music) is showcased in the JCDC's annual Mello Go Roun' which this year will be staged in Montego Bay in addition to Kingston. The JCDC also presents an annual exposition of art, craft, traditional music, dance, games and food at the National Mento Yard.
Source: www.jamaica-gleaner.com
Writer: Rebecca Tortello
Public Holidays
New Year's Day - January 1
Ash Wednesday - February 6
Good Friday - March 21
Easter Monday - March 24
Labour Day - May 23
Emancipation Day - August 1
Independence Day - August 6
National Heroes Day - October 20
Christmas Day - December 25
Boxing Day - December 26
