M3 Written Assignment Natalie Terry Carnival originated as a festival in ancient Egypt and was celebrated by the Greeks and then by the Romans. This popular festival was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe .The Carnival festival was transported to the Caribbean by European slave traders. They excluded the African slaves from the festival. On emancipation the freed African slaves of the Caribbean transformed the festival forever into a celebration of the end of slavery. The Carnival festival had a new cultural derived from African heritage and the new Creole artistic cultures developed in the Caribbean. Ancient African traditions play a big part in shaping the festival of parading and moving in circles through villages in costumes …show more content…
Carnival was now to forever be a celebration of the end of slavery and included all the elements of the Canboulay with a masquerade that mocked the antics of their former masters and also served as a reminder of the evils of western slavery. The European Mardi Gras would be forever transformed by the Canboulay Carnival of the former “African dance and music traditions also transformed the early carnival celebrations in the Americas. African drum rhythms influenced the creation of music genres such as soca and …show more content…
The music of the times speak to the relevant time in the 1960’s (civil rights) with the merger of the African American and Caribbean community both speak of oppression and the rise above it. In the southern and eastern Caribbean calypso and soca have helped to popularize West Indian carnival. Caribbean people carried their carnival celebration with them when they migrated. The undaunted spirit of the Caribbean remains highly visible in its popular culture. The people used the everyday oppression of enslavement and colonialism as instruments for creativity in the art, music, and literature for which the Caribbean is known for. Celebrations as we know them today in the Caribbean, in and the U.S. are the result of various festival traditions being introduced, interpreted, invented, reintroduced, reinterpreted and reinvented migrating from the Caribbean to the U.S and other nations. For instance the Labor Day Carnival (parade) in Brooklyn Carnival is one of the largest parades and street festivals in New York, with over one million attending. Notting Hill Carnival in England, Rio in Brazil’s carnival is considered the world's largest, hosting approximately two million participants per day. The most widely-known, most elaborate and most popular in the U.S happen in New Orleans the Mardi Gras it is a popular celebration in Louisiana