Heritage In case you were thinking that the sleepy sister isle of Tobago can’t match Trinidad for Carnival-like excitement, there are four annual Tobago events that will change your mind. Whereas Trini festivals tend toward the modern and ultrasophisticated, Tobagonians celebrate differently, with simpler, more pastoral pleasures that don’t necessarily require you to dress up to enjoy.
where the dress, attitudes and morals of the Europeans were actively blended into the day-to-day life of Tobagonians. Values like purity and fidelity, as well as practices to promote the fertility of both bride and groom play an important part in the day’s rituals. Women wear floor-length colourful gowns, and the men are outfitted in formal scissor-tailed suits, reminiscent of England’s Regency period. The bride (who wears white) and the groom, lead a Goat and Crab Races procession to the reception site, doing an At Easter you can catch the hugely elaborate heel-and-toe walk ritual. There, popular Goat and Crab Races, held in the guests are treated to a proper feast and Buccoo and Mt. Pleasant villages. Yes, you dance the jig and reel long into the night. read right—goat and crab racing. Most are The Sea Festival in Black Rock, Wake skeptical at first, but these unique sports and Bongo in Whim and Charlotteville, can become very addictive. You may find Roxborough’s Ms. Heritage Personality, yourself cheering your favourite ruminant the Junior Heritage Festival and the or crustacean as it races along the grass- ongoing Food Fair are other festival covered track. Like horse racing, there are hotspots to hit. The Sea Festival goat owners, goat jockeys, crab owners commemorates the slaves’ emancipation and crab jockeys. Thankfully, unlike horse and their subsequent initiatives to find racing, the jockeys don’t ride the goats another source of income from fishing. and crabs: they run alongside them. It also celebrates the methods by which Visitors have been known to jump in with the former slaves developed strong both feet and help the jockeys urge their community spirit in order to survive. During chosen racing crabs to victory. Most times the festival, participants recreate the time there are no set lanes to run in, so goats, when entire fishing villages would turn out crabs and jockeys jostle each other to to “knit” (mend) or “shoot” (throw out) the keep their lead. May the best animal win! seine or net. Persons learn the old ways preserving fish, and are taught communal Tobago Heritage Festival morals when everyone gets some of the The Tobago Heritage Festival is easily fish that’s caught. the biggest and most feted of Tobago’s Ms. Heritage Personality is not a events. The annual two-week eruption beauty competition but rather a contest of cultural and historical presentations to see which participant can most is usually held from July to early August. aptly demonstrate aspects of Tobago’s ‘Heritage’ as many locals call it, celebrates traditional customs. Typically, teenaged or the traditional customs of a largely young adult contestants are given a theme African-influenced Tobago, in the dances, upon which they build a presentation, music, religion and rituals and food that complete with props and costumes. Tobagonians claim as their birthright. These The Wake and Bongo honours the long-held practices are so important that mystical side of Tobagonian culture, the Tobago House of Assembly’s Division filled with rituals that contain both of Community Development, Culture and Christian and African religious elements. Gender Affairs along with the Heritage It is one of the rituals that it shares with Committee, made up of representatives Trinidad, although each island celebrates from each village, held a symposium after it differently. In Tobago, a wake is a night the 2009 Heritage Festival to evaluate ceremony held when someone has died. the event and find new ways to keep next Relatives and friends of the deceased year’s festival fresh while retaining its stay “awake” all night to honour the dead. important historical value. Christian hymns are sung and feasting (a The festival travels throughout the significant African-derived custom) is an island, touching several villages with its important element of the event. The bongo celebratory spirit, including Belle Garden, comes after the deceased is buried. It Roxborough, Charlotteville and Les leans more heavily on the African beliefs. Coteaux. Each village boasts a signature For example, participants believe that life event. For example, the Ole Time Wedding and death are very closely knitted and usually takes place in the village of the bong is a way to ease the deceased’s Moriah. The wedding re-enactment is rite of passage to the other side. It is also a cultural microcosm of an earlier time intended to liven up the ‘dead’ house by
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The Ins & Outs of Trinidad and Tobago
encouraging grieving relatives to enjoy life. Vulgar songs and dances intended cause laughter and to stimulate sexual arousal characterise the bongo—the purpose is to usher in new life by exciting participants to intercourse, which should lead to birth. Tobago Fest is a mid-September, miniCarnival masquerade, where you can enjoy many elements of what you may have missed in Trinidad earlier in the year. Bands from both islands crowd the streets for “night mas,” calypso shows and the sound of sweet steel pan. Tobago has its own version of “ole mas” (traditional mas characters) including speech bands, who wander from house to house with gossip, songs and jokes, often done in embellished European accents.
The Tobago Blue Food Festival
The Tobago Blue Food Festival is another important Tobago attraction if you’re hankering for more local flavour to tickle your taste buds. It’s held around October every year. For Tobagonians and Trinis, “blue food” can mean any starchy, edible root crop used in local cuisine— cassava, yam and plantain (not a root) included. But the term was specifically derived from use of the tuber of the taro plant, or dasheen as it’s locally called. When boiled, this good-for-you source of complex carbohydrates develops a blue colour depending on the variety; hence the idiom “blue food.” The Blue Food Festival is an opportunity for local chefs and cooks to earn bragging rights on their innovative preparation of the dasheen with stewed meats, in desserts or by itself. Prizes are awarded to most original dish, most innovative dish and to the participant with the most dishes, among other categories. The event is traditionally held at the Bloody Bay Recreational Grounds and hosted by the village councils of L’anse Fourmi, Bloody Bay and Parlatuvier along with the Department of Tourism in the Tobago House of Assembly. In 2009, organisers revamped the layout of the festival so that the rainforest provided the perfect theatrical backdrop to the day’s open-air activities, which included musical performances from Black Stalin and Shurwayne Winchester. And when it came to food, the Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute wowed attendees with dasheen ice cream, served in an empty coconut shell and delicious dasheen coladas. Who knows what blue food treats await in 2010?