Visiting The Aruba Carnival Extravaganza

The Aruba Carnival Extravaganza

Anytime is a good time to visit this Caribbean island, which is an independent part of the Netherlands, but the Aruba Carnival is the most activity-packed time of all. During this pre-Lent country-wide celebration, the island themes of music, dance, fellowship, and display reach an annual frenzy.

Parades; contests for the best costumes, calypso songs, dances, and road marches; and pageants to elect queens of all ages fill the days of this festival that occupies the whole population. The Tivoli Club sponsors the elaborate nighttime Lighting Parade, when huge headdresses and ostentatious costumes that dwarf their wearers are made even more spectacular by being strewn with tiny lights.

The costumes will be seen again by daylight at the Children's Parade in Oranjestad (the capital city) and in San Nichola, the Balloon Parade, the Torch Parade, and the Grand Parade (the largest of all) held the last Sunday before Lent. These parades go all day long, but the Trade Winds keep the temperatures in the 80's, so no one minds being engrossed for hours by the spectacle.

The costumes may be elaborate enough to stand alone, but are also part of amazing floats, rolling music machines, dance troupes, marching bands, and civic groups that rival anything seen in other parts of the world. The traditional colors of bright yellow, celebrating a bountiful harvest, and red, representing fire, are joined by every other color and enhanced with glitter, beads, sequins, and feathers, not to mention the beauty of the participants.

All through the festival there are contests that are as much fun to watch as the parades. Calypso composers vie to create the most provocative social commentary in the lyrics of this traditional island music. Road marches, unique to Aruba, are combinations of music and dance that keep the parades rolling along at peak excitement. The drum-driven Tumba music is a historic theme that has its own competition. 79 nationalities, dominated by traditional island and Latin influences, combine to create the unique flavor of Aruba.

On the last weekend of Carnival, the fun starts early in San Nicola, when pajama-clad revelers assemble in the wee hours to greet the dawn on what is called Jouvert Morning. This is an orchestrated tourist version of a neighborhood 'jump up', which is an impromptu street party that happens all through the festival season. It leads right into the Grand Parade through the city. The next day the Grand Parade moves to Oranjestad and gets even bigger.

The burning of this year's King Momo effigy at midnight before Ash Wednesday, which begins the Lenten season, is the last event of Carnival. Of course the carnivalistas make this as much of a parade as possible, since no one seems to run out of energy.

Throughout the whole visit, the friendly people, incredible beaches, world renowned food, famous weather, and the beauty of this most popular of all islands make everything that much better.

Experiencing Aruba Carnival is something the islanders enjoy as much as the visitors, which is why this event is so very special.