best notify my next of kin, this wheel shall explode As you probably know by now, my friend Persuade is from Trinidad. In the years that I've known her, she's mentioned Carnival a few times and I got the idea this was a big deal in her homeland. But she never actually went home for the party, so I didn't hear all that much about it. That is, until this year. While froo and I were soaking up rays in Cancun, Persuade was discovering the wonder of Red Bull in the streets of her hometown(!).

So now I'm all up to speed with the expensive costumes, the joining of a "band", the playing (i.e. dancing) in the streets all day long, the late-night dirty party called J'ouvert (you get covered in paint and such; see Persuade in this shot), and even some of the history of these events, such as the Canboulay Riots.

Carnival was brought to Spanish Trinidad by French planters in the 1770s. The British authorities disapproved of the festival because of its bacchanalian overtones but the festival was popular with the bulk of the free population on the island.

The festival was transformed when the island's slaves were freed in 1834 as a consequence of the passage of the Abolition Act by the British parliament in 1833. The emancipated slaves first celebrated their freedom on August 1, the anniversary of their emancipation but soon participated in Carnival instead.

As part of this transformation, they started carrying burning sugar canes or "cannes brulees" which was soon called canboulay. The carnival soon featured ribald dancing by men and women in masks.

It's been good for Persuade to experience Carnival again. Her life in Trinidad is comprised of a lot of good memories of Carnival, and having put that on a back burner while she's lived in Canada has gnawed at her every year. Check out the rest of her photos here.  | ¶ 7:17 p.m.