J'ouvert

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J'ouvert (also spelled as Jouve) and pronounced 'juuvay', is a large street party during Carnival in the eastern Caribbean region. J'ouvert is a contraction of the French jour ouvert, or day open (morning).

J'ouvert is celebrated on many islands, including Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. It is also a feature of New York City's Labor Day Carnival held in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn and Notting Hill Carnival in London, both areas that have a large Caribbean ex-pat communities.

The celebration involves calypso/soca bands and their followers dancing thru the streets. The festival starts well before dawn and peaks a few hours after sunrise. Another part of the tradition involves throwing coloured powders, water, smearing paint, mud, or oil on the participants known as "Jab Jabs".

Some theorize that this is done in remembrance of a civil disturbance in Port of Spain, Trinidad, when the people smeared themselves with oil or paint to avoid being recognized. Others point to the English-speaking Caribbean's significant Indian Community and the festival of Holi^[1] as the origin of this custom.