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The carnival in Guadeloupe, Mardi Gras Festival, is the best-known and most eagerly awaited annual festival in the islands. It begins on the last Sunday of the Epiphany with an explosion of cheerfulness and concludes with the burial of Vaval on Ash Wednesday, i.e., from 17th February 2007 to 21st February 2007. |
The rehearsal for the carnival begins in January and reaches fever pitch between Shrove Sunday and Ash Wednesday. Each commune prepares for the festival with the rhythm of drums and dance and elects its queen and its mini-queen for the children. The selected queens and mini-queens then contest for the queens of the carnival. All through the period of the carnival, disguised children traditionally go to crossroads everywhere in the island to request candies and money from the drivers. The carnivals occur in every town and village, but the largest celebrations are witnessed at Pointe-à-Pitre and Basse-Terre. The biggest parade processions are carried on the Shrove Sunday, Tuesday's Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday. The theme of the parades changes every year. The tourists can be a part of the spectacle, witness the costumes and participate in the music contests, the election of the Carnival Queen and the many nighttime celebrations.
On the day of the carnival, devils and she-devils dressed in white and black parade on the streets of Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre. They dance and sing to the tunes of the tom-toms. At the end of the day, the effigy of Vaval called ‘Bois Bois’, is burned in an incredible brouhaha and thrown in the sea under the cries and the lamentations of the crowd “Vaval mô, vaval mô (Carnival is dead), “Vaval Pa quitté nou (Carnival, do not leave us)”. Carnival is revived for one day at Mid-Lent Thursday, which is midway between Carnival and Easter.
