Trinidad Carnival Monday & Tuesday 2014

Trinidad Carnival Monday (lundi gras) and Carnival Tuesday (mardi gras) are the finale to the bacchanal starting just after Christmas. From early Jouvert morning, revellers wake up, ready themselves for the mud throwing and the hours of dancing, wining, bouncing, jumping and feteing in the streets of Port of Spain!

Choose a band – I have been playing mas with Ronnie & Caro The Mas Band since 2010. Most medium and large bands will provide costumes for Monday and Tuesday. Carnival Monday costumes are usually t-shirts and skimpy bikinis. Some people will wear fancier pieces of their Tuesday costume. This is the day that your band’s King and Queen take the spotlight. These large, mesmerizing wearable art are judged for their craftsmanship and design. The rest the band comes along for the ride in support and (obviously) to party and drink on the road all day.

Carnival Tuesday is what I like to call Diva Day. Women and men pay hundreds – if not thousands – of Canadian/American dollars to look perfect in their sparkly, beaded costumes. Coordinated make up, body paint, boots and hair must be on point for all the cameras that will be around to capture them on film.

Be prepared to have your picture taken by spectators along the route.  You will be the envy of all those little girls who dream of prancing around in gorgeous finery when they grow up. Smile because you will be seen on live streaming TV from Japan to Stockholm! Be a star and don’t forget to continue the feteing and dancing!! This is the day that every masquerader dreams of! The bliss of playing mas makes life worth living!

Then comes Ash Wednesday when tabanca sets in leaving masqueraders feeling like an abandoned lover – tired, aching, reminiscing over each and every spectacular moment in that relationship…and hoping for more! Ahhh sweet Carnival – the Greatest Show on Earth!