What is Sugar Mas and St. Kitts Carnival??

I've spent some time digging through St. Kitt's webpages about Carnival and Sugar Mas 42. I know enough to pass on some information to readers but there is so much going on in the month of December during Sugar Mas that it's difficult to figure out accurately what is going on when and where.

It's fair to say that the celebration is going to be huge when the government creates a complete department to organize and run this event. The St. Kitts Department of Culture preserves Kittitian culture by promoting traditional celebrations, visual art, literary art, culinary art, performing arts, and much more. Sugar Mas happens to be a combination of all these things wrapped into one. (The Department of Culture has a facebook page too.

Previous Carnival photo. Courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Kitts-Department-of-Culture/117273781646746

The challenge of defining St. Kitt's Sugar Mas is that it, along with a lot of the culture here it is like a huge woven rug that combines threads and fabrics from many different countries and time periods. In order to understand the entire rug we have to pull out each piece of string and closely examine it.

Courtesy: http://www.citapore.in/citapore-handwoven-cotton-stripe-rug-style-caribbean.html

Sugar Mas is not one event but a large conglomeration of celebrations, parties, and events that begins around the twentieth of November and doesn't end until around the 5th of January. As a historian I had to rely on my time tested approach of tackling this mammoth by trying to make historical sense of it.

So what is Sugar Mas? Good Question. The word "Mas" is the shortened form of the word Masquerade. In almost every Caribbean country they celebrate a Carnival or sometimes what's referred to as a Carnival Masquerade. Now they all don't take place in December either, but that's another topic. Anyways, Sugar Mas i'm guessing is just the specific name of St. Kitt's Carnival because of the importance of sugar in the country for so many years.

Courtesy: http://www.citapore.in/citapore-handwoven-cotton-stripe-rug-style-caribbean.html

So let's back up again to Carnival. This celebration began many years ago and is celebrated around the world in different forms. The celebration coincides with the Catholic religion and Lent. Lent is the period of fasting before Easter, for 40 days before Christ's resurrection date, signifying his wandering in the wilderness for that many days.

Carnival painting by Pieter Bruegel. 1559

Traditionally all of the rich foods such as sugar, meat, dairy, and drink were disposed of or used up before Lent since no parties or consumption of these foods was allowed during those four weeks. Therefore, the consumption of all these foods and drinks is believed to be what started Carnival. Some believe it may have started as early as Roman times and was adopted into the Christian culture.

Carnival in Rome 1650 By Johannes Lingelbach 

Originally Europeans, namely the French Catholics, brought the celebration to St. Kitts and other Caribbean countries, but slaves were excluded from participating.

Therefore modern Carnival has evolved from the combination of elements but what we celebrate today has four main elements: 1. Song 2. Music 3. Costume 4. Dance,which all translate as calypso/soca, steelpan, mas or masquerade, and dance.

In order for slaves to hold onto their traditions they combined what they knew in Africa to events in the Caribbean too. For instance the modern Carnival got its idea of parading because of what was called Canboulay , an African Yoruba tradition during slavery on sugar plantations. The Canboulay was the event of organizing the slaves into large groups where they would drum, sing, and march usually at night to put out sugar cane field fires. The marchers used torches, stick fighters, and chanting to build up their confidence along the route. Canboulay later was celebrated by the slaves in parallel to Carnvial and was eventually outlawed too. Canboulay later involved beating sticks after drums were outlawed.

Canboulay performers in Trinidad and Tobago. Courtesy: http://studiolafoncette.com/2012/02/02/tamboo-bamboo-bdc-221/

After emancipation in 1834, the former African slaves made Carnival about freedom and through satirical acting made mockery of their former taskmasters. Some say Carnival also serves as a reminder of the evils of slavery too. Since many of their traditional customs utilized similar masked celebrations with song, dance, animals, and costumes it easily became their own celebration.

Old depiction of Carnival in Trinidad.

The British did attempt to end Carnival after Emancipation because they saw it as savage and as a threat to peace and order. In Trinidad the British banned drums,(This led to the use of the bottoms of oil drums for steel pan drums), limited the number of bamboo stick fighters, and forced everyone to have restrictive permits for the celebration, but Carnival survived and is one of the largest events in St. Kitts and other Caribbean countries.

Back to those main elements of Carnival: Song is very important for the event and so far I've heard two major types of music being described on the radio or being thrown around during the holiday season. The first is Calypso. What is Calypso? My idea of it before I came here was a sort of happy joyous island music, but it's more than that. Calypso originated in medieval France and is associated with the traveling troubadours. When the French brought slaves and indentured freed blacks to Trinidad they again brought with them another cultural element that still exists in the Caribbean, Calypso music.

2013 National Senior Calypso Monarch King, Ritchie Buntin being crowned by Prime Minister Denzel Douglas. Courtesy SKN Vibes.

The slaves already had a system of singing under their slavery in Africa called Kaiso music. Once again they adapted it on the plantations because they weren't allowed to talk in the fields so they sung, originally in French Creole. The songs were led by a leader or Calypsonian and again mocked the slave owner and helped them communicate with each other.

By the late 1800s Kaiso was being called Calypso and as a side note, Kaiso music is supposed to be where the limbo dance came from. The participants were urged on under the stick. The Calypso music in more recent times held political and social themes and served as a form of news communication throughout Trinidad and other countries. By the 1970s Calypso music lost its popularity to a more upbeat music called Soca and some people believe Hip Hop arose out of Calypso music.

During St. Kitts Sugar Mas they have held many Soca competitions and Calypso competitions. I personally enjoy the Calypso music much more because of its humorous, yet truthful content. It's almost all political in nature and also "calls" out people who are greedy or not "living right." The winner of these competitions is crowned the Calypso King or Queen Monarch until the next year.

Calypso music has given way to Soca music which is much more upbeat, loud, and is mostly electronic music with repeating rhythms and lots of bass. It sounds like circus music to me, but who am I to judge.

So as we examine Carnival piece by piece we learn that it is made up of a ton of history and culture. I'm fairly certain that the majority of revelers who started partying and drinking at 3 a.m. J'ouvert the other day have no idea where this tradition started and how much importance it has had to Caribbean people.

J'ouvert morning this year.

I do know that the celebrations have been great and through some research I can now understand and appreciate the importance of Carnival for St. Kitts. I am also thankful to be able to experience this uniquely Caribbean event.

Stay tuned for my next post where I'll post more photos of Jouvert and Carnival!


During my research for this post I found a really cool, old photo of a play done in St. Kitts in 1901.

I also found a great book that I thought I'd share if anyone is interested. It's available here: Amazon.com

Parade Today

Hey guys just letting you know the carnival parade is supposed to be at 11 this morning. I doubt it starts before 2, but there you have it. The order of events is supposed to be:

Grand Carnival Marshall
Children’s Carnival (again?)
All Carnival Events' Winners (I'm guessing Miss Teen, etc.)
Folklore Troupes (basically clowns)
Parade Troupes (see below)

The route is as follows:

Troupes will assemble on Wigley Ave. Turn right on to Cayon Street, right on West Square Street, left on South Square Street, left on East Square Street, right on Pond Road to Sandown Road, right on Sandown Road, right on the Bay Road to Fort Street, Right on Fort Street climaxing in Circus.

If anyone wants become part of the action, Xtreme presents 'CARNIVAL SURVIVORS'..............Come As You Are' Parade Troupe. Its free, just come in any old carnival costumes and come party with them. They have a good point that after 40 years, there need to be more than three troupes, but I can't figure out what happened to Xtreme's original Pirate-themed troupe. Anyway, if you want to be a part of it, the Facebook page says: "Trailer Packed!!!!! Bar Packed!!!! Food Cooking!!!! Packages sold out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Xtreme ready to mash up town.................... Party starts at 12.00 midnight at the TDC Grounds!!!!! XTREME GOING TO STEP ON THEM, THE HARDER THERE COME THE HARDER THEY FALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The costumed troupes are broken down into several sections:

• Plush's Fusion Fantasy: Bliss, Fantasia, Greek Goddess, and Seduction
• Phunnmakers (the longest running Carnival troupe): Red, Exotique, Blue, and Diamonds (although these guys didn't get their costumes delivered on time, so they're going to have to regroup)
• Banker Mas' Somewhere in Taiwan: Sun/Moon/Lake, Lantern Festival, Ilha Formosa, Jade Empress, and Kite Master.

Bring some chairs, slather on some suntan lotion and/or bring some shade, fill your cooler, and get ready.



Unrelated to Carnival, Bruce Buffet is doing well in Canada and everyone did a fantastic job raising funds to get him there, but there's a bit more work to do. This time, friends are asking for donations of "stuff." Here's the lowdown (and Facebook Page)

The sale is on January 14th at the field across from ECCB, so collect what you can, bring some money to buy stuff, and let's see if we can help this family out.

Kids in Costume

So today was the children's carnival parade. It was supposed to start at 2pm. Everyone thought it was weird that we had 2 weekends and 4 holiday days to have this thing, but they picked a work day instead. I figured they were trying to impress the passengers on the Allure of the Seas cruise ship, so I was amazed when the parade started almost 2 hours late. Impressive...The ship is HUGE! Look at it towering over the capital.



Normally Michael & I tag team each on pictures so we can make sure we get two vantage points, but Michael had to work. Instead, I was lucky enough to run into new pals Alexandre and Patricia and they were willing to share their photos (thanks guys!). Alexandre threw himself in front of the troupes so most of the pics I used from him are wider angles. I was on the sidelines trying to get around the pazillion people walking back and forth along side the kids (and getting in my way).



Of course, the problem with having someone else with a camera is they take pictures of you! I was soooo bored.



He also had the cajones to take a picture of this guy (a crazy man who lives in an overgrown hovel near the IGA grocery store).

The organizers did send a few masquerade (clown) troupes around and these jumper guys came along and made things interesting. First they had to setup. Notice the pitch fork.




The first jumper they sent down was this little guy. He, of course, went around the obstacle laid out for him.

But then they got serious.



Ok, that was fun. Let's start the parade! This year's theme for the children’s Carnival was: “St. Kitts-Nevis Culture and Future.” According to the Carnival's Facebook page, the heart of the theme was "to use the children of the Federation, our FUTURE to portray examples of our culture and the avenues for future growth." Any quotes going forward are from the Carnival Facebook page. The first troupes up seemed to be independent masqueraders (clown) groups of older kids.



This team seemed a bit ragtag, but they were representing Brimstone Hill.



Our Most Talented Teens



Their support.


This girl did not take a bad picture. I'm not sure what she was representing, but she sure did look good doing it.



Then it was time for the Carnival Masquerade. The troupes were broken down by school districts and the write-up for this one was as follows: Representing Zone I (schools from East Basseterre to Central Basseterre including St. Peters I).


"Every December, we love to get dressed up and depict activities and features from sea life, to flora and fauna and Pirates and treasure. Decked out in the tranquil color of purple, our children play their role this carnival by celebrating that time old tradition of playing MAS – through the Carnival Masquerade." I think this group had the most energy.




Next up was Information Technology (Representing Zone II – schools from West Basseterre).

"This sector presents the next sphere of opportunity for creativity and growth for our nation. What started at the assembly lines of our Manufacturing sector is evolving to include the creation of applications for phones and other exciting areas."







Here comes Soca Music! (Representing Zone III – schools from Old Road to St. Paul’s)

"They will display the color, fun and frolic that only listening to SOCA MUSIC provides for Caribbean People. From classics from the greats of Ellie Matt and the G I Brass to the big bands of SMALL AXE, GRAND MASTERS and NU VYVES. Soca Music makes your waist sing."




Now Industry and Commerce (Representing our private schools and brothers and sisters from NEVIS in Zone V).

"To us, money matters and where we get our money is in the industries and areas of commerce and development that we are able to generate. This includes the manufacturing sector, renewable energy and the arts and entertainment. Lets make that money baby!"



Can't forget about Agriculture and Self-Reliance (Schools from Newton Ground to Cayon are members of Zone IV.)

"We remember when King Sugar has sustained our sugar belt for hundreds of years but with his demise other crops have begun to share his throne. From tiling the soil to reaping the bounty we need food to be all over in order to sustain ourselves."

These were my favorite costumes.




It was rounded out by some more clowns.



Uh oh! The bull's got Patricia!

And then it started raining. Kids running for cover, the ship looking ominous under an ugly grey cloud. Time to go!



The costumes were very detailed and the kids seemed to have routines, so it was more fun than just having them walk with water bottles stuck to their faces (although there were a few of those), looking lost. Next up, the costume parade for adults on Monday (no time given yet). We have to survive New Year's Eve first too. Here comes 2012 whether we're ready or not. Happy New Year's everyone!