Carnival originated from pagan festivals celebrating the end of winter and start of spring. When Christianity spread, the church incorporated pagan traditions into the pre-Lent festival of Carnival. French settlers in Trinidad brought their Carnival traditions of masked balls and role reversals. African influences transformed Carnival with drumming, dancing, masks and costumes. The 1881 Canboulay uprising saw clashes between celebrants and police trying to ban African percussion, and led to modern Trinidad Carnival celebrating resistance against oppression.

1. TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
CARNIVAL

2. WHAT IS CARNIVAL?
It is an annual celebration of life found
in many countries of the world
Usually lined up to mark the beginning
of lent but sometimes takes place at
other times of the year.

3. ANCIENT ORIGINS
• Egypt
• Ancient Greece (Dionysys)
• Rome (Lupercalia, Bacchus)
• Anywhere that Catholics settled

4. OSIRIS

5. In Europe the Pagans believed that evil spirits ruled the world during winter,
and that they had to be driven out for summer to return.
Many Pagans also held celebrations at the end of successful harvests heading into winter
and were a way of thanking the spirits.

6. In ancient Greece, Dionysia was a large spring festival that was held to honour Dionysus who was the god of wine

10. PAGANS CELEBRATED THEIR GODS AND THE FESTIVAL
WAS POPULAR, SO WHAT DID THE NEW CHURCH DO?
• Reinvent the festival
• Called it ‘’farewell to flesh’’ (carne vale) in
preparation for the devotions leading up to
Easter.
• Encouraged the preparation for the strict
Season of lent.

11. WHO CAME TO OUR SHORES WITH CARNIVAL?
• The FRENCH plantation class settled in Trinidad
along with their slaves.
• Settlers came from Grenada, Martinique,
Guadeloupe and Dominica.
• As long as they were catholic and swore
allegiance to the king of Spain.

12. HOW DID THE FRENCH CELEBRATE CARNIVAL?
• Masked indoor balls
• Hunting
• Role reversal

13. ROLE REVERSAL COSTUMES

14. DAMME LORRIANE
Monsieur Gwo Koko'- a man with large
testicles,
Madame Gwo Tete'- a woman with huge
breasts,
'Monsieur Gwo Buden'- a man with a big
belly,

15. AFRICAN TRADITIONS
• African dance and music traditions transformed
the early carnival celebrations in the Americas,
as African drum rhythms, large puppets, stick
fighters, and stilt dancers began to make their
appearances in the carnival festivities.

16. AFRICAN INFLUENCES ON CARNIVAL TRADITIONS
• One African tradition was people parading
around the village, circling it wearing masks and
brilliantly coloured costumes, whilst singing and
dancing to bring luck to the village. For the
village to have luck it meant scaring away the
spirits of angry dead relatives, which is why
many carnival parades feature symbols of death.

17. CANBOULAY (CANNES BRULEES)…BURNT CANE
HARVEST FESTIVAL
when cane in the
plantations caught alight,
causing a fire to break
out, the enslaved were
rounded up by the
plantation owners and
were forced into the
danger area to collect all
the cane surrounding the
fire to prevent its loss

18. CANBOULAY ACTIVITES
• Revelers carrying burning cane.
• Stickfighting
• Drumming
• Singing in Kaiso tents
• Circling the village in masks and costumes

22. THE COLONIAL AUTHORITIES ATTEMPT TO BAN CANBOULAY

23. CANBOULAY UPRISING OF 1881 – FIGHT AGAINST THE
OPPRESSIVE BRITISH COLONIAL GOVERNMENT
1846 – The outlawing of masks and masquerading
1849 – Laws allowed to police to actively restrict “dancing and music at specific times…in the streets and towns.”
1880 – All uses and forms of African percussion were banned.

24. FEB 28TH 1881, POLICE OFFICERS WERE DISPATCHED

25. RESISTANCE
• People had brought broken rum bottles and
stones along with them for protection in case
the police began to attack them for breaking the
colonial laws

26. .
The police and Canboulay participants clashed for almost
three hours across
Trinidad, in Port of Spain, Princes Town, and San Fernando.
Towards the end of the clash, after a British man was struck
in the head with a stone, police opened fire,
killing one and wounding two others.
The crowd of Canboulay attendees then eventually
dispersed in fear of their lives.
Four police officers were killed in total, with another thirty-
eight injured.

28. While Canboulay in its original form was eventually cancelled, it is re-enacted every year on Carnival Friday,
and it undoubtedly paved the way for the modern Trinidad Carnival and its associated observations,
and will forever signify the resilience of Black culture against restrictive and destructive forces. Other traditions from
East Indian culture also made its way into the festival, making it a true ‘’Trini’’ festival.