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The Crop Over Festival of is a uniquely Barbadian festival, originating out of the harvest festivals of two cultures - England and West Africa. The English celebrated their Harvest Home Festivals, while the West Africans celebrated various festivals, including the Yam Festival - the yam being a staple food of that region.
The early Crop Over festivals were not centrally organised as they are today, but were celebrated on individual plantations or groups of plantations, where activities were concentrated in the mill-yard - the first site involved in the harvesting of the sugar crop. At one time, there were close to five hundred mills scattered across Barbados, and although festivities varied from area to area, they all followed a basic pattern.
The very last loads of canes to be harvested were brought into the mill-yard as the nucleus of a procession of animal-drawn carts. These carts were decorated with branches and flowers; the canes were tied down with brightly coloured cloth.
The first cart was usually led by a resplendently clad woman; after this came the other carts accompanied by the various workers associated with the sugar crop, all carrying final loads of canes. The very last card carried 'Mr. Harding', an effigy made of cane trash stuffed into an old pair of trousers and coat, with a top hat on its 'head'. Mr. Harding symbolised the period between sugar crops, when employment was difficult to obtain and money was scarce. The time was referred to as 'Hard Time', so that the crop time and the hard time divided the Barbadian year, in the same way that spring, summer, autumn and winter divided the year in countries with temperate climates. A Barbadian might be a sugar worker during crop time and a carpenter - if he was lucky - in the hard time.
The procession entered the mill-yard and made two or three circuits of the yard so that the enthusiastic crowd could get a good look at the beautiful decorations. As the procession stopped, an old and respected labourer stepped forward to the waiting plantation owner or manager, the day's host. With exaggerated solemnity, the labourer thanked the host on behalf of the other revellers, after a similarly exaggerated reply, the festivities started.
Food was very important on the agenda. The plantation provided a number of animals to be slaughtered, so that there was meat in abundance, made into stews, pudding and souse and roast pork. There were also fragrant pots of peas and rice (or is that rice and peas?) as well as coconut bread, pone, cassava 'hats', salt-bread, cheese, ham and fish cakes.
All of the above was washed down with copious amounts of liquid, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. 'Swank' was a favourite, made from cane liquor and water; fancy molasses, coconut water, rum and falernum - a very sweet alcoholic beverage - were also served.
And then, there was the music! The tuk band played a very active role, with its accompanying troupe of 'shaggy bear' - a man dressed in a costume made of plantain sheaves; the 'mother Sally' - another man dressed as a woman with exaggerated bosom an buttocks and the 'donkey man' - who danced in a donkey costume with four legs, but which, in silhouette, looked like a man riding a two-legged animal.
Very popular too, was the art of stilt-walking, either in the form of competition or demonstration; which featured stilt-walkers stripping to their underwear during the performance! The captive audience was also thrilled by other competitions: catching the greasy pig - where the prize was the actual pig. Another game of skill involved climbing a greased pole, which carried the prize money at the very top of the pole, as well as stick-licking competitions.
The grand finale of the festivities was the burning of 'Mr. Harding' - the straw effigy - to symbolise the fervent hope that the hard times to come would not be too severe. The festival as previously described was discontinued in the 1940's. It is widely believed that the hardships experienced during World War Two, made such high-spirited celebrations impossible.
In an effort to fill the void left by the absence of Crop Over, the Junior Chamber of Commerce began to stage an annual carnival at Kensington Oval; this ran from 1958 to 1964. It comprised float parades, masquerade bands, calypso tents and beauty pageants.
Then the eastern chapter of the Jaycees, led by the likes of Hilford Murrell and Warwick Franklyn, organised an annual arts festival in 1973, which was taken over by the Community Development Department and became the precursor to the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts - NIFCA.
The Yoruba Foundation, under the direction of Elombe Mottley, came up with the idea of reviving Crop Over. However, it did not receive the necessary support and approval from Government; the concept was eventually taken up by the Board of tourism, now the Barbados Tourism Authority. That planning committee was headed by Julian Marryshaw, Carol Cadogan and Emile Straker. The idea was to create an event which would attract tourists to the island during a referred to in the industry as the 'slow season'.
The responsibility of producing Crop Over was later handed to the Ministry of Culture, then headed by Nigel Harper and subsequently Elombe Mottley. In 1983 the National Cultural Foundation was established, and has been conceptualizing and producing the festival ever since.
In recent years, the Crop Over Festival is spread over a three week period, commencing with the Opening Gala and Ceremonial Delivery of the Last Canes and culminating with the costume parade through the streets leading to the Spring Garden Highway - Grand Kadooment.
The Pic-O-De-Crop Calypso competition is one of the most keenly contested in the region, while the Party Monarch Competition takes advantage of the ruggedly beautiful setting of the East Coast Road as its backdrop. There's also the Junior Kadooment Parade and Junior Calypso Monarch Competition, the Fine Art and Craft Exhibition, Folk Festival Gospel Concert and Bridgetown Market. Cohobblopot is arguably the biggest and most exciting party of the season, featuring performances from the hottest bands and calypsonians; the Kings and Queens of the costume bands also parade before the judges.
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