Calender

Today is Easter Sunday. It seems strangely appropriate to me that today is when I sit down to begin mapping the dates of rituals and events that occur in the calender year for the different strings of thought that are running through this thesis. The Christian story of Carnival is of course ultimately bound to the Pagan story of Carnevale. Carnival is in a sense the great let-go before the season that has preceeded Easter. On Carnival day across the globe, echoes of the Saturnalia and Bacchanalia, scenes of the Dionysian rights and masks of the French Pierrot walk freely across the street. 

Possession. Alot comes down to possession. 

In Yoruba, i've been reading that possession is an integral part of celebrating their vast pantheon of Gods. Channeling the God's energy through participants in the ritual takes the centre in worship. Orisha they say is the first to appear usually; the trickster God, who they must dispel before he creates havoc. 

Shango in Trinidad is a derivative of the Yoruban religion, similarly as Vodou in Haiti, and Santeria in New Orleans are derivatives. Shango worships the God of thunder and drumming. I'm trying to find out more about Shango practices. It's crucial because they manifest the beginings of the Caribbean Carnival. 

I'm hoping that when I make these calenders for the different stories, that I will be able to see their correlations more clearly. I've learnt a fair bit about each individual story, but I don't know, except in feeling, how they stand together, simultaneously. 

Also, you will notice that at some points I speak about magical realism in Latin America, the Caribbean and West Africa. It should become clear later on (I hope) that there is a link between the carnivalesque style of writing that has evolved in these places, with the celebration of Carnival in each place. All 3 places have had waves of a similar story. Carnival may be, what Marquez refers to as 'the means to render our lives believable', or what Walcott calls the 'the retoration of our shattered histories', if merely for a few days a year.