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The Classics

Photo Flashback: The Happy Spirit of Carnival

Published:Friday | February 9, 2024 | 8:15 AM
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Pauline Chevannes, UCWI Carnival Queen, 1959.
Second-place winner in the Carnival Queen competition, Yvonne Laughton.
Jacqueline Davis, third-place winner in the UCWI Carnival Queen competition, held at the Mona playing fields on Friday night.
CHAMPION calypso singer – Harold Russell (Barbados). At right is Lennox Pike (British Honduras), calypso band leader.
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THE University College of the West Indies (UCWI) had been successful in its attempt to infuse the Jamaican public with the spirit of carnival.  This carnival, which is built around the melodic cacophony of the steel band, is an attempt to bring Jamaica in line with other Caribbean countries such as Haiti and Trinidad, who have an established tradition of pre-Lenten festivity.

The UCWI has originally imported this festival occasion from Trinidad, for it was  formed as a steel band and did the campus rounds in imitation of the Trinidad 'bacchanal' they had left behind. Carnival tended to be confined to the campus and enjoyed mainly by students. However, a special programme has been arranged to infect the Jamaican public with the carnival bug.