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Grenadines Encyclopedia
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J'Ouvert
Jouvert is a part of carnival typical for the Caribbean islands. It is a heritage of the days of slavery. In those years the plantation owners used to celebrate carnival with fancy clothes and masquerades. The slaves who saw the exposure of such wealth started to make their own variant, with probably the intention of ridiculizing the whites with their fancy clothes. So instead of dressing up nicely, they decided to cover themselves with mud, clothing themselves in rags or clothes made out of natural materials like palm leaves.J'ouvert Music The music that accompanied the J'ouvert was, and still often is, homemade and often consisting of heavy metal objects like car rims heavy bolts and ironwork.
The sound which is produced is often astonishing correct and finely tuned.
J'Ouvert has an aspect of wild behaviour, but on the contrary on the islands of Grenada there are hardly ever serious incidents during the night. Other music popular during J'ouvert is Pan Music and Soca. Unlike during Carnival itself , during J'ouvert Reggae music is "not done"
Soca Is the typical music at Carnival.
J'ouvert - a contraction of the French jour ouvert, or day open (morning) - is a large street party during carnival in the eastern Caribbean region. J'ouvert is celebrated on many islands, including Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
The festival starts well before dawn and peaks a few hours after sunrise when revelers have tired out or been bludgeoned into submission by strong rum.
Part of the tradition involves smearing paint, mud, or oil on the participants known as Jab Jabs. This is done in remembrance of a civil disturbance in Port of Spain, Trinidad, when the people smeared themselves with oil to avoid being recognized.
J'ouvert is also a feature of New York City's Labor Day Parade held in Brooklyn.
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