Tag Archives: Carnival

Faces of Carnival

Carnival is the biggest event of the year in the Caribbean! The island of Saint Martin is no different, and we’re lucky enough to get it twice: once on the French side and once on the Dutch side. Unfortunately, I missed all the festivities on the French side, but I did catch a few things on the Dutch side! My friends and I went to the light parade and Ben and I went to the children’s parade. We also went to the apex of Carnival: the grand Carnival parade!

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The parade is filled with elaborate costumes of feathers and glitter. The colors swirled around us and music pulsed in our ears, drawing us in to the heartbeat of the festival.

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The parade (and most of Carnival, really) is centered around the sensuality of a woman’s body. With so much focus on sensuality, I felt that the appreciation of people for who they are  was lost somewhere behind the sequins and paint. Since this is a family-friendly blog, I want to present a different angle on Carnival than the typical. This post is a study on beauty: not the transient beauty of the revealed body, but the authentic, lifelong beauty of humanity. They say that the eye is the window to the soul, so I have decided to focus this photographic undertaking on the beautiful faces of the people in the parade. I hope that as you look at these beautiful faces, you will reflect on the wonderful miracle that is embodied in each person.

a woman wearing carnival feathered headdress on Saint Martin, Dutch Caribbean

Carnival woman green and braids

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Carnival woman orange feathers

Caribbean Carnival woman headband

Caribbean Carnival woman blue and green feathersCaribbean carnival steel drums
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”
-C.S. Lewis

Man at carnival pink feather

Caribbean Carnival Woman Red feather

Caribbean Carnival woman glitter

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Carnival woman red white green feathers

Carnival woman purple

Carnival woman red yellow feathers

“So God created human beings in His own image. In His own image He created them, male and female He created them.” -Genesis 1:27

Carnival mohawk

 

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Carnival woman curls

carnival man feathers

carnival woman serious

Carnival girl blue

 

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Caribbean Carnival Children’s Parade

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The air around me pulses with the rhythm of the Caribbean. All around me, the crowd lining the street moves to the beat of the music. This is not America, where we stood stoically and watched parade floats drift by. This is the isle of Sint Maarten, and we are a part of the sound and color here.

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Today, it is a holiday. It is Carnival, and the children are marching in their very own parade. Miniature dancers twirl in miniature costumes, nearly unrecognizable in paint, feathers, and glitter.

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The winners of last week’s junior pageant are here, dressed in their royal finery. They wave to us with the queen’s wave, and we wave back.

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The parade is filled with the heroes of a child’s word– princesses, super heroes, minions, even Kung Fu Panda!

My personal favorite were the candy dancers. I loved their giant hoop skirts and sweet designs.

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Ben liked the Lionfish Dancers. Their costumes really did look like the fantastic “feathers” of a lionfish!

Although this event was not popular with the tourists, hundreds of locals turned out. Many of the other expat families also came to watch! Some American University of the Caribbean students’ children came to watch friends march in the parade.

If you want to see the future of the Caribbean, this is the place to come. All around me, I saw the future of the islands in the faces of the children. If we want to invest in tomorrow, we must invest in them! Perhaps the whole reason for the junior parade is to remind us of this.

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Charge of the Light Parade

  
Isn’t a Caribbean Carnival on everyone’s bucket list? It’s on mine! In a few days, that item will be checked off as Sint Maarten’s Carnival kicks off.

  
Because we’re in the Caribbean and we take any excuse to celebrate, there are several events leading up to actual Carnival. One of these is the Light Parade! 

  
Sandy, Stacey, Aqiyla and I went to Philipsburg to enjoy the music and confetti that lit up the night.

  
One of the local kids told me that the buildings shake during Carnival. I thought he was kidding, but sure enough, the vibrarions could be felt in the very air. All around us, the environment pulsed to the beat of Caribbean rhythms.