Why
The people of
Barranquilla are convinced that their Carnival is the best in the world.
Haitians, in their turn, believe that they have created the most impressive
Carnival in the universe. Needless to say, the Rio de Janeiro Carnival is
thought by Brazilians and, indeed, by many people throughout the world, to be
the greatest. We, of course, in Trinidad and Tobago fervently believe that all
of these views are fundamentally misguided. It is through the “Why” of the
festival that the matter of which Carnival is the best will finally be
resolved.
The Spirituality of Festivals
The historical record
indicates that Africans were the first human beings to celebrate festivals.
These festivals were specially established events which enabled mortals to come
into the presence of the divine. Africans in the Nile Valley instituted mankind’s
earliest civilized societies. These Africans societies were centered on the
Creator, who was worshiped, for the most part, through the forces of nature
deemed to be manifestations and aspects of the Creator. These manifestations
and aspects of the Creator were seen as persons in their own right, that is, as
gods and goddesses. The gods and goddesses of the Egyptians exactly correspond
to the orisha of the Yoruba people.
The Egyptians approached
the Creator through these gods and goddesses, these orisha, these
intermediaries. There were special places, shrines, temples, “palais,” in which
symbols or images of the gods and goddesses were housed. However, for the most
part, only specifically designated individuals had regular access to these
shrines. It was during the festival that the Creator walked among the people,
that the symbols or images of the manifestations and aspects of the Creator
were brought forth from their shrines to the streets.
TO BE CONTINUED
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