Unlike other Carnivals, in Martinique the festival extends into Ash Wednesday. From Rio to Trinidad to New Orleans, the world's most celebrated pre-Lenten Carnival fetes all pale in comparison to Martinique's Carnival in one key area -- length. Each year as revelers in other Carnival hot spots wind down with the close of Shrove Tuesday, the festival in Martinique keeps going on to one of the most solemn days on the Christian calendar, Ash Wednesday. The official dates of the 2010 Martinique Carnival are Feb.13 to 17, though the celebration actually begins many weeks prior with Carnival parties taking place across the island each weekend in January.
"Fat Sunday" (Feb. 13) is known in Martinique as Dimanche Gras. The official first day of Carnival features daytime parades with a wide range of costumed characters performing throughout the streets of Martinique's cities and towns. Among the more popular and notorious characters are the Nègres-Gros-Sirops; mischievous revelers covered in coal tar and sugarcane syrup from head-to-toe who break through the crowds of spectators playfully frightening children. Another outrageous character, Marianne La Po Fig, appears as the music and dancing extends deep into the night wearing, as her name implies, nothing but dry banana leaves. Throughout the day, marchers parade around with puppets called Bwa Bwa.
"Mardi Gras Monday" in Martinique brings "Mock Weddings," burlesque parodies played out in the city streets with men dressed as pregnant brides or floozies and women serving as reluctant bridegrooms. Ceremonies are held well into the night, culminating in elaborate masquerade balls where drag is the preferred costume de nuit.
Shrove Tuesday is "Red Devils Day," with imagery, costumes, parties and parades themed around the Prince of Darkness. This day is all about the kids, with glorious processions featuring hundreds of children dressed in red devil costumes, carrying homemade tridents and wearing masks made of animal skins and horns. Red cloth jumpsuits are adorned with hundreds of mirrors and small bells that jingle as the kids dance. The elders carry on the party from there until the wee hours.
As Carnival revelers in other parts of the world nurse hangovers with the arrival of Ash Wednesday, the party in Martinique kicks into high gear. The bonus "Day of the She-Devils" (La Fête des Diablesses) marks the climax of the celebration with more than 30,000 "mourners" gathering to mark the end of Carnival and the symbolic death of King Carnival, known as Vaval. The local media reports death notices in honor of Vaval, while festivities take place as his funeral pyre is built. Only two colors are worn -- black and white. "She-Devils," their faces smeared with pale ash or white flour, wear embroidered waist petticoats and blouses, a black skirt and headscarf made with a damask white table napkin. Mismatched black and white socks, shoes and gloves complete the traditional ensemble.
As dusk falls, Vaval's funeral flames light up the sky. The party peaks as Vaval is consigned to the fire. Officially, Martinique's Carnival ends at the close of Ash Wednesday. Carnival is revived three weeks later with a second bonus day of revelry known as Mi-Carême, or mid-Lent. Vaval remains buried, but cities and towns across Martinique spring to life again with costumes, rum and parades combining again to engender non-stop revelry amid a Carnival-like atmosphere -- a mini-Mardi Gras. Fro more information, call 212-838-6887, email [email protected] or visit www.martinique.org.
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