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Grand
Parade - 'Gran Marcha'
The official carnival season in Cura?o usually starts
the first or second weekend of January and culminates
during the Farwell Parade on the Tuesday before Ash
Wednesday, which is the first day of Lent.
Already as the New Year is just a few minutes on its
way, one can sense the unique vibration that captivates
the people of Cura?o and the thousands who visit the
island to experience this mass cultural expression.
During the first hours of the year radio stations start
airing the most popular Tumba?s of previous years which
immediately bring to mind wonderful moments and make the
inhabitants of the island reminisce the good times.
Right after Lent the creative minds of the Carnival of
groups start to organize brainstorming sessions to
decide on which theme(s), costumes, road pieces and
floats they will expose during the Grand and Farewell
Parade of the following year. They develop costume
illustrations for each section of the group.
Some members are appointed to smaller work groups and
commissions which take care of specific aspects such as
fundraising, acquisition of material and so on. Some of
the craftwork such as welding and sewing is contracted
out, but most of the manual work such as gluing,
stitching and decorating is done by the members.
Music ensembles, brass bands and DJ?s are contracted way
in advance and the groups prepare for months for
Curacaos? biggest and greatest cultural event.
The Grand Parade ? ?Gran Marcha? ? usually starts at 10
o?clock in the morning on the Sunday before Ash
Wednesday and the last group reaches the end of the
route at sundown after hours of sheer joy - shuffling -
dancing - jumping and exhibiting their creations to a
crowd of almost 100,000 people who gather on the
sidewalks along the route to enjoy the colorful show.
The spectators go wild to the beats ands and sounds of
the contagious music.
The Farewell Parade starts on Tuesday at 5 o?clock in
the evening and culminates at midnight just before the
first minutes of Lent on Ash Wednesday. The Farewell
Parade has a special touch for the floats and road
pieces are decorated with lights which makes it a very
unique spectacle.
Carnival is a mixture of a street party and theater
which involves art, culture, history and folklore.
Carnival brings together nearly every aspect of Curacaos
cultural identity. Almost every inhabitant of the
island, which features people from more than fifty
different nationalities, in one way or the other, is
involved in Carnival. The whole island sets aside their
differences to celebrate what they have been longing
for, for a whole year, Carnival. |
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