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« on: January 01, 2007, 02:18:04 PM »
Great discussion..didn't even notice the title changed until writing this thing. The following points were taken off of a t-shirt that was sold by ZOOM Caribbean at Long Circular Mall many years ago. I bought it because of its obvious history lesson and that it looked good for a couple outings. I did not write all of the points because of time (lack thereof) and those that are mentioned may have been quoted previously from past postings; anyhow, here lies my shilling's worth
The Evolution of Mas
The origin of Carnival is to be found in the ancient pagan custom of the Saturnalia - a custom which was modified by the Church of Rome to be a two-day festival before Ash Wednesday, when Christianity were allowed to pay "farewell" to the devil, pomp, vanity, and lust of the flesh before entering upon the period of fasting and repentance during the forty days of Lent. The word itself is derived from the Latin Carne vale - farewell to the flesh. The festival spread to those countries of the New World where the Roman Catholic Church held sway as the dominant religion, and so in this way, Carnival came to Trinidad.
Not indulged in any great extent in Spanish times, the festival was given tremendous impetus and encouragement on the arrival of the French planters in 1783, and continued with much of the enthusiasm after the capitulation to the British forces in 1797.
...Dame Lorraine - said to mean fashionable lady, was an elaborate and grotesque parody of the way French planters conducted themselves at their stylish balls. Mockery of their masters' dancing eccentricities had always been a common form of private entertainment among slaves many years before this, and the Dame Lorraine performance formalised this practice into public theatre for a paying audience on a Sunday night of Carnival.
ps..the Dame Lorraine festival came about because Canboulary was banned in 1881 by Captain Baker in the famous Canboulay Riots.