J’ouvert

Abstract

Chapter 4 situates J’ouvert (pronounced joo-vay) with Carnival in Trinidad. In that country, J’ouvert inaugurates the Lenten season as Carnival, a rite of spring. St. Kitts and St. Croix have their own long-standing masquerade and Christmas holiday traditions although celebrants now appropriate much of the festival culture of their island neighbor, including the celebratory name for their Boxing Day–related Carnival, J’ouvert. Located in the eastern Caribbean, these island chains may offer the most interesting and paradoxical cultural and historical connections. For instance, St. Croix is one of the US Virgin Islands; and while not unusual for Caribbean islands, over the centuries, six nations have ruled it. In addition, locals identify St. Kitts as Ground Zero because, initially named St. Christopher by Christopher Columbus, it bears the weight of the site from which chattel slavery spread. On both Lesser Antilles isles, Boxing Day morning’s J’ouvert personifies Caribbean transcultural globalization.