Carnival

Carnival means weeks of events that bring you colorfully decorated floats, contagiously throbbing music, luxuriously costumed groups of celebrants of all ages, King & Queen elections, electrifying jump ups and torch light parades that wind their way through the streets at night, the Jouvert morning: the Children's Parades and finally the Grand Parade.This has got to be the greatest party ever!

Where else can you find Antillean "tumba" music, the Calypso and steel bands of the English Caribbean, the salsa beat of Latin countries plus marching bands and a smattering of Dutch oom-pa-pa? The 2 month long celebration culminates with the all-day Grand Parade on Sunday, with everyone and everything all decked out.

Be sure to put on your shades, there will be an awful lot of glitter out there! Monday is an official holiday for everyone to recoup and recover! You can relax at the pool with daiquiris to replace all that precious liquid you lost jumping around.

But just when you think it is all over, there's the Farewell Parade and the burning of Momo, indicating the end of Carnival and the beginning of Lent. Symbolically, Momo's ashes are used on Ash Wednesday.

All in all, we think this is the perfect time for people to come visit us in Aruba. But so does everybody else! So make your reservations well in advance to come celebrate carnival the way we do, right here in Aruba!

Carnival History

Every year In January and February, the Aruban Carnival celebrates another year of its popular and impressive Carnival season. The amazing atmosphere and cultural diversity during Carnival is definitely something you have to experience when visiting Aruba. The exciting parades, jump-ups, beautiful costumes and a truly vibrant atmosphere are just a few reasons why Aruba is packed during this period, and this is how it all began:

First Era 1921 - 1954

The first signs of carnival celebrations occurred back in 1921, when some of the many social clubs were having costumed celebrations. These parties took place on the social clubs’ premises and were mainly elite European-style balls, like debutante balls and costumed parties to celebrate seasonal festivities. After a few years, The Americans in San Nicolas (who worked in the Lago Oil Refinery) introduced their own Euro-American style seasonal festivities, such as the fancy dress dance by the Lago Marine Club, where members dressed up as Clowns, Caballeros, bull fighters and coons. These seasonal festivities were mainly parties around Halloween, Christmas and Carnival, and became the first step into the carnival celebrations as we know it now.

Second Era 1945 -1954

In these years the Lago Oil refinery started to reach their employment peaks with most of their recruitment done on the Caribbean-English islands Trinidad, Jamaica and British Guyana. These English immigrants were the first to organize a parade in San Nicolas for the allied victory of World War II. In the years after the victory, the Trinidad carnival was flourishing; Mas (masquerade) bands were growing larger and it became a period of enormous creativity for the Trinidadians. It was these immigrants that enriched Aruba with the Trinidadian style of carnival. Meanwhile the carnival celebrations of the Social groups were growing larger and larger. All clubs were now having carnival queen elections on the island, and the first parades were held by Arubas oldest social club: the Tivoli social club.

Third Era 1954 - 1965

The third era of Aruban carnival began when the native Aruban and English groups joined to plan the first island-wide public carnival under a (temporary) central carnival committee. Hosted by the Tivoli club, the representatives of the various social clubs held a meeting to coordinate their efforts towards a single grand carnival parade in Oranjestad, combining Steel bands, floats and costumed mas players. The Carnival committee organized the first Carnival Queen Election. In 1957, the custom of having two organized grand parades began; the first in San Nicolas and the second one in the capital Oranjestad. After eight years, the calypso and roadmarch became an integral part of the carnival season when the calypso competitions were introduced.

Fourth Era 1966 - Now

The first year in this era was known for the establishment of the S.A.C; The Stichting Arubaanse Carnaval (Aruban Carnival Foundation). This committee was founded on exactly 11:11 AM of the 11th day of the 11th month, which is known as the Fools Day. The committee is the main organizer of the Carnival festivities, but not the only one: In 1981 the Tivoli social club established the lighting parade.

Election, Coronation and Contests

Aside from parades, the Aruban Carnival hosts a range of exciting elections & contests. Below, you can read all about the swinging melodies of the Caiso & Soca Monarch contest, the most beautiful costumes shown in the Carnival Queen election, and the funniest performances in the Prince and Pancho contest.

Carnival Queen Election And Coronation

The central figure of Carnival in Aruba is the Queen. The role of the Carnival Queen is to lead all the street parades and to make a public appearance that promotes Carnival. The carnival queen represents the Aruban carnival at home and abroad during her reign. The queen is elected during the carnival period and represents one of the many Carnival groups. In addition to the Carnival Queen election, there is also a Carnival Youth Queen election and a Carnival Children's Queen election.

Prince And Pancho Election

The Prince and Pancho are two figures in Aruba's carnival tradition. The Prince's main task is to present his Queen to the people upon her election, and to accompany her wherever she appears. The Prime Minister opens the reign of the royal court by handing over the keys of the Island to the Prince. Pancho is the personal assistant of the Prince. His role is to tell jokes and accompany the Prince in his royal functions. The Prince and Pancho are chosen for their royal qualities. The duo is chosen for their comedy, personality, educational content and audience popularity.

Caiso & Soca Monarch (Calypso & Roadmarch Contest)

Calypso & Roadmarch music is an important part of Aruba's Carnival. The music styles originate from Trinidad and were introduced during the 70's to Aruba by Trinidadian immigrants. The rhythmic lively music played around carnival has found a place in the hearts of the Arubans. Every year the Roadmarch & Calypso contest is held to crown the Roadmarch & Calypso King or Queen.

The Aruban Calypso is a slower version of the Roadmarch rhythm with as a main purpose to speak to one's mind through the Calypso song. These songs carry a message about everyday life on Aruba with no subject being sacred. Roadmarch on the other hand is the music mostly played during the parades. Roadmarch songs are focused on dancing and drives both participants and viewers with the urge to dance.

The contest title has changed to Caiso & Soca Monarch 2013 for the Carnival 59th Season. As explained by MUSICA (Aruba Association of Musicians) the Caiso is a modern name and style for the new Calypso and Soca is the international name for the Roadmarch. How the music is presented by each band and singer will remain the same.

Tumba

African slaves brought a peculiar drumbeat called the Tambu to Curacao and from there on it spread to Aruba and Bonaire. Over the years, the Tambu incorporated other musical instruments to evolve into a Dutch Antillean Meringue, which we call the Tumba. Tumba is considered to be a music genre founded on the ABC-islands and is a true part of Aruba's culture. The Tumba's that are written and performed during the carnival period increasingly serve the same function as calypsos. Tumba is a vehicle for satire and information through a composed song.

Carnival Groups

After King Momo and Momito go up in flames, we all think that the carnival activities are left at rest until next year. Not so for the Carnival Group Leaders, for them it signals the start to preparations for the next theme to be used in the next carnival season, which would need to be ready for presentation at the opening of the new season in November of the same year.

They prepare several themes including a separate one for the children if the overall theme is too serious. Aside from the theme preparation group leaders start selecting their representation for Princes and Panchos (Child, Youth and Adult), Queens and also reserve the best band that fits their budget. The group has to keep their cost as low as possible because they are also responsible to keep participants refreshed with drinks and food during the parades. In the early days social clubs used to take care of the organization during the parades, but as time went by Carnival groups themselves took on the responsibility of making Aruba's Carnival one that continually stands out in the Caribbean. Actual participation in the parades is the culmination of months of preparation.

After considering a theme each group leader consults with a close-knit group of their members behind closed doors preparing and discussing several designs before selecting one. Slight variations of theme are drawn, including a design variation for men, women and children's costumes, but all of which are based on the chosen theme. Other variations of the design are created for the head-pieces, body-pieces, road-pieces and floats.

Steelbands and Brassbands

Steelbands

Leonard Turner, a Trinidadian immigrant who worked at the Lago Oil Refinery, was the first to introduce steel bands in Aruba. Being unhappy with the lack of entertainment on the island Turner recruited a group of young men and they began experimenting with music. This resulted in the first ever steel band in Aruba, named Shoo-Shoo Baby and Aruba All Star Boys.

They started making their steel pans from oil drums collected from the Lago Oil Refinery. The barrels were formed by hammering the bottoms with a sledge hammer until they had the right shape and tone.

The group increasingly started to play variants of the samba, rumba and other popular music on their home-made instruments. As their rhythm and appearance became more common, and popularity grew, more and more musicians joined. Some of the steel bands grew to over forty musicians.

The first Carnival steel band competition ever was organized in 1964. Eight steel bands competed in a legendary competition. The Merrymakers, the Devils, the Curacao Heroes, the Long Gun Boys, the Paradera Steelband, The Silver Stars, The Allstars, and the Aruba Invaders were all talented groups which produced the most amazing sounds. Finally the Aruba Invaders won with their variant of the theme from exodus, making them the first Aruban steel band competition winners.

By the 60’s & 70’s multiple steelbands were providing music for the carnival parades. The bands became so popular that a total of 18 steel bands participated in the 1978 steelband competition. Unfortunately, the amount of musical panmen decreased in the 90’s because of a lack of institutional support and appreciation. Today, steelbands are almost a lost art. You will rarely ever see a steelband in a parade, although one or two may exist. One of the still existing steelbands plays at the Tourism Night of carnival, so be sure to check it out.

Brassbands

The brassbands on Aruba play a type of rhythm that is called Aruban Asambeho, named after the developers Arnold Beyde and Samuel Hodge (Aronold Samuel Beyde Hodge). They combined the music of the samba, the calypso and marching bands to produce brassband music with a sound, rhythm and beat suitable for dancing, especially made as a musical accompaniment for the Aruban Carnival Parades.

The rhythm of the brassbands is created by heavy drums combined with lighter drums and snare, and the tune is created by wind instruments, for example trumpets, trombones, and saxophone. The sound of the brassbands is phenomenal and the music is nowadays seen as a new symbol of national identity. Unfortunately, the brassbands today have lost some of their popularity, but the brassbands that still exist offer a great show.