Like figurines from a magical world, the revellers and musicians have appeared on the streets of West London, albeit for a few hours when the sons and daughters of immigrants from the West Indies reenact their ancestor’s heritage taking to the streets with a gaiety that only masqueraders know how. The festival is back on the streets after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced governments worldwide to limited outdoor gatherings, and to put place strict restrictions: wearing of masks and social distancing in an effort to curb the spread of the disease which at the time of writing according to Gov.uk has killed 205,000 persons in the UK, and 6.4 million worldwide. The legal restrictions in the UK were lifted this year on February 22 following a successful massive roll-out of a vaccination program.
West London
But the waiting has not been in vain, the organisers, Notting Carnival Hill Ltd, the participants and their sponsors have thrown everything into the staging of this year’s festivities to pull off the biggest street theater on the planet; a juggernaut of an event. West London which is the home of the Notting Hill Carnival that coincides with the British Summer weekend holiday in August. It was developed from an idea of a Trinidadian human rights activist, Claudia Jones, in 1958 who according to the Washington Post, “began organizing a gathering to unify the community after a series of racially motivated attacks on West Indians in west London’s Notting Hill neighborhood.”
Carnival
Carnival, however, is more traditionally held in the two days before the season of lent, before Ash Wednesday, “a religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting” which usually falls in either February or March. Some countries that observer Carnival in February or March are Venice, Italy, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Louisiana, USA, Bonaire, Curaçao, Carriacou, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique Saint-Martin, and Trinidad and Tobago, the home of ubiquitous steel pan orchestra that is synonymous with the season.
Claudia Jones – Wikipedia (2022). Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Jones?fbclid=IwAR37bVbO1SVav_0l4SzX6mJrdMfE44Slq876SFS-27OoZfCyYO5NyYrmAkg (Accessed: 29 August 2022).
Notting Hill Carnival – Wikipedia (2022). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notting_Hill_Carnival?fbclid=IwAR3o1U4FASYoM99oK_J8rHezNaiNXs8N5c4oifVMjU8GbXK-iDWJlNEuziU#/media/File:Notting_Hill_Carnival_2019_(6).jpg (Accessed: 29 August 2022).
ALBERT WILLIAMS Reporting 