Carnival

Carnival is considered by some Haitians as the biggest holiday of the year. In the past few decades it has changed from a costume and parade event into a huge-party-in-the-streets event. It seems to me that this allientated some of the previous participants and carnival is no longer for everybody. But – it’s still a huge attraction. The official carnival in Port-au-Prince is 3 days. This year, due to unsolved housing problems, the organizers were not able to build stands for spectators (as the usual place is occupied by tents) and only a few exist. Some artists preferred to skip the celebrations, and the route was cut short. On the first day we bought a ticket to one of the few stands that did exist and celebrated carnival from close, but from a safe distance. An unbelievably strong carribean rain just went the party was starting to pick up sent most if not all the celebrators back home early. No pictures as we took nothing with us when we went out to avoid pick pocketers.

Last week we went to Jacmel. The Jacmel carnival is a week before the big one, and is considered to be a friendlier ‘old-style’ event. We drove to Jacmel a couple of days before carnival day (in Jacmel it’s just one day) and spent most of the time in a beach house that belongs to a friend of a friend.

The carnival itself was as promised. Friendly, safe with a parade, people of all ages participating and happy dancing in the streets. Jacmel in general is clean, calm and friendly and I liked it a lot.