Words by Lil Tiger—
Arubian Carnaval is in full swing and, this year, the tiny and famously happy island is doing it big for the celebration’s 60th anniversary.
The season in Aruba officially kicks off right after the New Year, with two full months of festivities which culminate in the Parada Grandi, aka The Big Parade, in Oranjestad on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Unlike other carnival celebrations, Aruba’s big party is not a Tuesday night thing, even though it’s based on the same principle of letting it all loose before Lent.
Arubians take part in Carnaval festivities from the get go—we never really need an excuse to take a break from life and party—but things really jump off at Hebbe Hebbe and go strong from then almost daily until the Big Parade.
While there’s plenty of action before it, Hebbe Hebbe is the first you must go event of Arubian Carnival. It’s a big party (and a fairly young tradition—the name is a contraction of the Papiamento Hende bebiendo Heineken Bier, meaning “People Drinking Heineken Beer”) in front of Oranjestad’s main post office where everybody drinks, socializes and gets familiar with the music of the season—the road marches, the anthems, the various bands who will be on the trucks.
Photo: Lil Tiger
If you’re unfamiliar with Aruba, it’s important to note that the approximately 20-mile long island has two main cities: Oranjestad and San Nicolas. Oranjestad is the hub of everything. It’s where the cruise ships dock. It’s basically where the airport is. It’s the center of the Arubian universe, more or less. San Nicolas, on the other end of the island, is the working-class city where the oil refinery has historically been based.
San Nicolas has a reputation on the island for a lot of things, some good, some bad. It’s often unfairly characterized as a rougher, seedier part of town because of its darker racial composition and the presence of brothels. But San Nicolas is also a hotbed for some of the island’s best music and culture. And, as it relates to Carnaval, the city is home to two of the most important elements of Arubian Carnaval: the Caiso and Soca Monarch Contest, and Jouvert.
Arubian Carnaval is all about the parades that lead up to the Big Parade, most notably the Lighting Parade, the Children’s Parade and Jouvert.
The Lighting Parade is my favorite. It takes place at night, both in Oranjestad and in San Nicolas. It’s essentially the same as the Big Parade, with all the same groups, trucks and bands, but it takes place at night. Instead of lighting up the parade route, masqueraders attach colorful lights to their costumes, creating a dazzling parade of lights moving through the dark streets. Alongside the parade route, spectators adorn glow sticks and glow-in-the-dark necklaces. There’s an amazing amount of energy, and it’s really a sight to behold.
There are also three Children’s Parades: one in Noord, a small town in the northern part of the island, and in Oranjestad and San Nicolas. As the name suggest, kids are the masqueraders in this parade instead of adults, and it’s unbelievably cute.
And of course, there’s Jouvert in San Nicolas. Much like other Jouverts, Aruba’s party starts around 4 a.m. and goes deep into the morning. Not everybody takes part, but you see a little of everybody at Jouvert: young kids, old folks, tourists, locals, all partying until the crack of dawn.
The early-morning fête takes place the night before the Big Parade in Oranjestad, but what makes it special is the scheduling. There is a big parade in San Nicolas on Saturday, and then the Big Parade in Oranjestad on Sunday. Same parade.During the big weekend, Arubians typically go to San Nicolas on Saturday during the day, then come home, eat/party/socialize/disco nap, and go to Jouvert in the middle of the night. They party ’til the wheels fall off, come home, sleep a few winks, then camp out at The Big Parade on Sunday, an all-day affair. It’s basically 48 exhausting, ridiculously fun hours of Carnaval celebration.
One of my favorite things about Arubian Carnaval are the spectator trailers. At the start of the parade season, families rent small plots of land along the parade route where they build their own trailers so they can all watch the parade together from an elevated standpoint. They literally build the trailers themselves, building sturdy wooden shacks on top of trailer hitches and painting them distinct colors. These trailers function as homebase. It’s where families stash all their food and booze and other daylong necessities. There they can gather, hang out, dance and get drunk all day, all while getting some shade from the brutal sun.
People usually start setting up the trailers before the parade schedule starts, keeping them throughout the parade season.
Arubian Carnaval is really a family affair. People party and drink and have a good time, but it’s not about debauchery. It’s an all-inclusive, dance-in-the-streets, dress-up-in-elaborate-costumes and eat-good-with-your-fam celebration. The point of Carnaval in Aruba is to celebrate the island’s colorful culture and to set yourself free and have fun. Carnaval is more about everyone just having a good time, than about letting out all your wildest demons and doing hedonistic things.
Of course, there is no Carnaval without the music.
Once again this year, local legend Claudius Philips aka Mighty Talent, of the beloved OREO crew, was crowned Aruba’s Soca King with his song “Carnaval Cheezy.” Keeping it in the family as well as the crew, Philips’ son Shawn (Mighty Talent Jr., of course) won the Caiso (Calypso) crown with “Palo.”
Soca runs the road during the Carnaval parades, but at the heart of Arubian music culture and a focal point of Arubian pride during the Carnaval season is Tumba, an afro-merengue style of music unique to the the ABC islands—Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao. (For more on Tumba, check out this classic all-vinyl Tumba set from my radio show Impulse Travels).
This year’s Rey di Tumba (Tumba King) title belongs to Jerrino Bass with “Aplauso Pe” (Applaud It), a song imploring Arubians, in papiamento, to show their cultural pride by clapping for the parade, the participants, and all things they cherish about Carnaval.
The music will be running non-stop from now until the final Jump Up after the last truck passes on Sunday. And then Monday will be a much-needed national day of rest. For most people, Carnaval climaxes with the Big Parade in Oranjestad. But the more adventurous Arubians, those who aren’t too worn out from celebrating their own Carnaval, will keep the party moving in neighboring Curaçao.
Curaçao keeps a similar parade schedule, albeit with a different flavor than Aruba. But they extend it a bit further with a Grand Farewell Parade, sometimes referred to as the Momo Parade, on the Tuesday after the big parades on both islands. Arubians who aren’t ready to let go of Carnaval will fly over to Curaçao for the farewell parade on Tuesday night, and then watch the burning of the Momo the next day. (Aruba has it’s own Momito/Momo events, but they pale in comparison to those on Curaçao).
All-in-all, Arubian Carnaval is a monster of a party that will shine in a big way all the way through the weekend. It’s not to be missed.
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