Culture refers to the total way of life that is learned and shared by any society. It is the combination of the arts, customs, beliefs, and institutions created by a group of people at a particular time and place which forms part of their cultural heritage.
Our cultural heritage includes everything that has been handed down to us by our ancestors that continues to affect our patterns of behaviour and the way we live. However, for a thought or action to be considered cultural, it must be commonly shared by some population or group of individuals. It includes the way we dance or sing or play music. It is the way we speak, the expressions and the languages we use. It is the special foods we cook, and the way they are prepared. It is the stories that we tell or write about ourselves and the land around us. It is the toys and handicrafts we create, the way we build our homes and the traditional methods we use to fish or farm.
Our culture is made up of all these things, it even includes the way we enjoy ourselves. A great aspect of our culture is our folklore such as; Clowns, Moko-Jumbies, Masquerade, Bull, and Actors. All come on display in the tremendous exuberance at Christmas time during our carnival to entertain and educate the community about our culture.
Clowns
The clowns are a part of our folk culture that finds expression at Christmas time in a festival that has been celebrated for hundreds of years. Usually one of the largest troupes with as many as fifty players, they have provided entertainment for years. The typical clown suit is a loose costume of two colours generously decorated with tiny bells which jingle as they perform their famous whip-swinging dances. The elegance and grace at which the clowns perform as they serpentine behind and between each other is a spectacle to behold. The pink wire mesh mask worn as part of the costume, hiding the face of the performer, apparently depicts the European, and is a feature of almost all the local folk dance characters. The sounds of bells and the crack of the Hunter, a leather whip carried by each performer, punctuates the rhythms of the String Band, biding closer the dancers to the musicians.
Moko-Jumbies
An all time favourite, has its origin in West Africa. Stilt walkers or Moko-Jumbies as they are called locally, have been passed on from African mythology, particularly in the Ghana area. The name Moko, though its origin is not clear, is said to be the name of the God of Vengeance while on the other hand it is believed that the word Moko is a corruption of the word Macaw. The macaw is a very tall palm tree covered with thorns and it is felt that the Moko-Jumbies may be trying to resemble it, especially so, since their head piece is symbolic of the heart of the macaw plant when it is in bloom. They are dressed in a long gown and dance on six to eight foot stilts. Many theories have surrounded their dance, and although we may never know which is true, one cannot deny that seeing someone dance without fear on six to eight foot tall stilts provides much amusement and thrill.
Bull
The bull is originated from an incident which occurred on Belmont estate around 1917, surrounding an estate manager and his prize bull. The story goes that the bull fell ill, and it is the scene of its revival that is acted out in graphic detail causing humor and havoc as the bull runs wild among spectators. The scene is re-enacted by a man dressed in red clothing a bull head-dress in which the story unfold as it had around 1917.
The Actors
The name actor would most likely be thought of as a group of performers taking parting a stage play. In St. Kitts, “The Actors” is a group of acrobats engaged in a series of daring somersaults over a large upturned garden fork. The Actors were created in the seventeenth century by De Poincy, the French Governor who settled at St. Peters where he erected a palace on his estate La Fontagne. Actors from the parish of St. Peters still perform skilful, hair-raising acrobatic feats. In addition to the somersaults done over the prongs of an upturned garden fork, the actors place a big stone on the chest of one of the acrobats and the stone is broken with a sledge hammer.
Throughout the years, Kittitians have taken their traditions and customs and woven them into a unique pageantry displaying them for all to see mainly during the Carnival celebration at Christmas time. If we lose these traditions and customs then we would have lost a vital part of our inheritance and our existence.
(resource: StKittsTourism)
