Friday is a Carnival: Un Solo Pueblo and "Macoklis Mango"

I have been to New Orleans Carnival every year since 2005 except for 2013, yet my first Carnival was experienced in a foreign country. In the late 1990s, I traveled to Europe for the first time and spent a lot of time in Germany. I was there February and March, and my visit coincided with Carnival and Easter. For those of you who are as yet unacquainted with the general idea of Carnival, the idea is pretty simple. Lent is coming, and with it a period of fasting, attention to spiritual matters, and reflection on the life of Christ and his sufferings, as well as our own faults and sins and a striving toward cleaning up our own lives. However, until Lent begins, one should celebrate, consume, and party until they have to be good. Carnival can certainly be equated with excess, but more often it is a celebration of the things we have, and an acknowledgment that life is fleeting and death around the corner (until Lent reminds us that the reward for our good lives is heaven).

At the time I was in Germany, I didn't know any of this. Of course I had heard of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but I didn't really understand it. It was just a big party in my mind. So I was intrigued by the Carnival I found in Germany. There were strange customs - people dressed in costumes during the day, a band of women roamed one town and if they found a man in a tie they would symbolically snip the tie with scissors. There were parades, both large and planned and small and spontaneous. A lot of the costumes and themes seemed to be politically and socially satirical. And everywhere was candy, food and drink. Candy was thrown off of floats to spectators lining the street (I remember one particularly bitter cold day in Bonn when a pretty young woman in front of me got brained in the head by a heavy bar of chocolate. "O danke!!!" she exclaimed when I picked it up and gave it to her, flashing me a pretty smile before turning back to the parade. It seemed like the season never ended - every day there were parades and balls and costumes. Germans were of two minds about it. Some were really, really into Carnival and waited the entire year for it to happen. Others hated it, wanted to leave town or avoided it as much as possible.

Later, when I lived in New Orleans, I became one of the lovers of Carnival. After all, I could be my introverted, staid self for an entire year, but for at least one week, I could be silly, dress up (and especially bend genders - I have been known to go out on Fat Tuesday dressed in women's clothing), and simply make a mockery of myself, my life and in doing so, be less serious about it and have fun at my own and others' expense. In addition, New Orleans had its own unique music associated with Carnival, particularly that of the Mardi Gras Indians. I have been in love with it ever since.

Today's song brings me back to that yearly event. Carnival is a worldwide celebration, taking place wherever Christianity took root. Brazil has a famous Carnival with its own traditions and customs, as do many Latin American countries. Venezuela is also home to a Carnival with flavors of both Latin and Caribbean styles, and the song Macoklis Mango captures the joy and essence of the music that accompanies such carnivals. Macoklis Mango is by the band Un Solo Pueblo, a Venezuelan band formed in Caracas in 1976. A large band, consisting of 20 some members that is known for passing the lead back and forth through the company between and within songs, they are credited with helping rescue the genre of Afro-Venezuelan music. In the 1980s, they grew to include a horn section and began to incorporate influences from other Latin and Caribbean countries. Their longevity and body of work has led to their designation as an essential Venezuelan cultural treasure by the government. They have released 19 studio albums, and have 5 compilation albums. I couldn't find the original album that Macoklis Mango is on, but you can find it on the compilation album Putumayo Presents: Carnival!