By Hilroy A. Willett
Having been either born or raised during the era at the start of Antigua’s Carnival over some 60 years ago and having been a participant in this event during that time, it is easy to imagine what carnival meant then. Apart from Christmas, carnival was the other social festival of national interest and importance. Whether it was to commemorate the Emancipation or for other reasons a summer festival, all we know then that August Monday and Tuesday were calendar days eagerly looked forward to.
The period that is the weeks and months before the carnival season was so significant that preparing for the event was anticipative and full of anxiety. As children then, one’s participation depended heavily on parents who would have many reasons for allowing or not allowing their children to ‘go to carnival’. First and foremost was that of their own participation, since without them going, then certainly not the children by themselves. Very often, a parent going to carnival would depend on other parents or friends going too. If your parents weren’t, then “crappo smoke yuh pipe” – no carnival for you! If going, one would be filled with joy and gladness with much expectation and hope.
Participation would also depend on the financial resources of one’s parents. During that era, incomes were meagre and often woefully inadequate to meet household expenses, much less for carnival. To participate in carnival, parents had to make tremendous and immense sacrifices to buy outfits for themselves and the children, bus fares if you were traveling from the country to town, refreshments and related costs. Some parents would go to the night shows – namely, Queen show, village pageants, calypso and steelband competitions, carnival dances and fetes – while the children were limited to children’s carnival if and when finances could afford such.
So as not to depend entirely on their parents, children did their outmost to raise their own finances by engaging in summer jobs, running errands, doing things around the yard, helping out in the sugar cutting and reaping, burning charcoal, selling fruits, and many other revenue-generating activities.
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