The relationship between the carnival season in the Caribbean and Guyana’s Mashramani is very easily disguised. The two seasons coincide, not so much by the natural calendar or traditional roots but more by historical happenstance. Yet the periods are the same because once there is recovery from the Christmas and New Year’s season, energies shift gear and apply themselves to carnival, to Mashramani, and the run-up to the competitions in the indigenous music of the calypso, soca and chutney.
Carnival’s roots are deeply embedded in ancient customs. Colonial settlement and religion caused countries in this part of the world with a strong Roman Catholic background like Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago and parts of the Eastern Caribbean such as St Lucia and Dominica to celebrate carnival. Others whose background was more Anglican, like Antigua, Barbados and Jamaica were not traditionally carnival countries. Carnival-like celebrations did, however evolve in all of them. What is more, some, notably Antigua, have adopted carnival and have as enthusiastic a festival as their neighbours, but celebrated in August. Barbados’s Crop-Over, also held in August, is in a few areas, almost indistinguishable from carnival.
To take it further, other ‘Roman Catholic’ territories like St Lucia switched their carnival from this season to the middle of the
