“Come, leh we jump up!” The Roots of Toronto Caribbean Carnival (“Caribana”): Calypso from Trinidad and Tobago
Posted: August 4, 2012 Filed under: David Rudder, English: Trinidadian Comments Off on “Come, leh we jump up!” The Roots of Toronto Caribbean Carnival (“Caribana”): Calypso from Trinidad and Tobago
Today marks the 45th anniversary of Toronto, Canada’s, original Caribbean festival, started in 1967 by a handful of energetic Trinidadians who had settled in the city. What began as a simple parade of a few hundred on McCaul Street evolved into a massive day-long Jump-Up attracting a million-plus people, where the line between spectator and participant was often invisible – crowds following Charlie’s Roots, Catelli All-Stars or Toronto’s own AfroPan steel orchestra all along the parade route – holding up ‘streetcars’(trams) and causing traffic snarls on the Saturday of the Simcoe Day long weekend. Brass bands on flatbed trucks playing whichever year’s Road March or Calypso/Soca Top Ten, interspersed with costumed revellers “playing mas”, commenced at Queen’s Park, headed south down University Avenue, under the York Street railway bridge and dispersed at Queen’s Quay and the ferry dock on Lake Ontario – the party then continuing with a picnic and live music on Olympic Island.
Caribana was Toronto’s single biggest cultural event throughout much of the 1980s and up until the mid-1990s when The Jump-Up finally had some real summer competition: The Gay Pride Parade, The Beaches Jazz Festival, and Taste of the Danforth.
But it was Trinis who brought FUN to this city’s streets FIRST.
Today, Saturday August 4th, the 2012 Jump-Up is winding its way along Lakeshore Boulevard under sunshine and 30 degree Celsius heat – perfect weather for “playing mas”!
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Mas is short for masquerade, and we feature Trinidad Calypsonian David Rudder’s 1998 Soca lyrics for High Mas (a pun on playing mas and holy mass) to honour the nation which brought a lusty public party spirit to the streets of Toronto away back when…
David Rudder
High Mas
( Give praise, give praise, Children, yeah!
Give praise, give praise, Children! )
Our Father who has given us this art
So that we can all feel like we are a part
Of this earthly heaven – (Amen)
Forgive us this day our daily weakness
As we seek to cast our mortal burdens on your city – (Amen)
Oh merciful Father, in this Bacchanal season
Where men lose their reason
But most of us just want to wine and have a good time
Cuz we looking for a lime,
Because we feeling fine, Lord, – (Amen)
And as we jump up and down in this crazy town
Send us some music for some healing – (Amen)
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Everybody hand raise
Everybody give praise
Everybody hand raise
And if you know what ah mean – put up your finger
And if you know what ah mean – put up your hand
And if you know what ah mean – put up your finger
And if you know what ah mean then scream:
O O O O O, give Jah his praises
O O O O O, let Jah be praised
O O O O O, the Father in his mercy
He sends a little music to make the vibration raise
So Carnival Day everybody come and celebrate
Everybody come and celebrate
See the ragamuffin congregate, yeah
Everybody come and celebrate
And everybody say:
Eh eh eh eh eh eh, ah love meh country
Eh eh eh eh eh eh, ah feeling irie
Eh eh eh eh eh eh, ah love meh country
Eh eh eh eh eh eh, ah feeling irie
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Our Father who has given us this art
So that we can all feel a part
Of your heaven – (Amen)
Forgive us this day our daily weakness
As we seek to cast our mortal burdens on your city – (Amen)
On this lovely day when we come out to play and
We come out to sway and we breakin a-way
Some will say what they have to say
But only you know the pain we are feeling – (Amen)
As it was in the beginning of J’ouvert
Goodbye to Carnival Tuesday ending – (Amen)
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Everybody hand raise
Everybody give praise
Everybody hand raise
And if you know what ah mean – put up your finger
And if you know what ah mean – put up your hand
And if you know what ah mean – put up your finger
And if you know what ah mean then scream:
O O O O O give Jah his praises
O O O O O let Jah be praised
O, the Father in his mercy
He sends a little Soca to make the vibration raise
So Carnival Day everybody come and celebrate
Everybody come and celebrate
See the ragamuffin congregate, yeah
Everybody come and celebrate
And everybody say:
Eh eh eh eh eh eh ah love meh country
Eh eh eh eh eh eh ah feeling irie
Eh eh eh eh eh eh ah love meh country
Eh eh eh eh eh eh ah feeling irie…..
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Trinidadian glossary:
Mas – Masquerade; revellers “play Mas” when they are in costume
Bacchanal – old-time word, still in use, meaning: festivities, good times, mayhem!
wine – verb: to move sensuously, and it’s all in the waist!
lime – noun or verb: hanging-out with friends; “chilling”
ah – I
Jah – God, The Creator, The Father – in the 20th-century Jamaican religion of Rastafarianism
(which has pan-Caribbean believers – including Trinidad’s David Rudder)
Soca – contemporary word for Calypso music; originally coined from Soul+Calypso
meh – my
irie – a Rastafarian word: joyful, deep down in your soul
breakin a-way – dancing with vitality and confidence; making a beautiful spectacle of yourself
J’ouvert – from the French “Jour ouvert” (Opening day); the Monday just before Ash Wednesday
(which is the day that Lent begins and Carnival is officially done – till the following year!)
Zócalo Poets 