Been living in Dominican republic for almost 2 years outside the traditional expats social bubbles and this is my second carnival. As the opinions about cultural symbolism differ from person to person one is for sure - it is a pitoresque picture of chaos, energy, fun and traditions. This photo was taken by me on the ceremonial opening of carnival in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Sunday February 19th.
The guy on the picture is wearing one of the costumes that differs by regional "dance" schools. I am using quotation marks because sometimes it's pretty hard to call their dance dancing... But who am I to judge! Dominicans really enjoy carnival because of the colors, noise and lots o people to express their freedom and will to live. That's why nobody cares about the coordination because the main emphasis is LIVING THE MOMENT.
Didn't even want to go there as I didn't realise it's "that" Sunday. Saw a huge group of people, saw some masks, went to check it and spend whole afternoon on the festivities. Moments like this are healing...
So bright and colorful!
Yes its the festival of colors, glitters and noise :) The colors differ from dance school to dance school. What they do is, that every city has it's own style of costume. Some of the are using symbolism from original Taino culture (like on the first picture - mask as a resemblance to solar deity, their solar god and typical trousers with shells. Others have a strictly colonial and post-colonial symbolism, like the devil mask with hen on the top. Anyway the colors differ from flame/sun related (on the pictures), through green (my guess is symbolism to ever green nature here) to blue (which relates to sea and ocean). All these schools during carnival travel through island doing shows in costumes during festivities. Cannot imagine how they carry on with all that energy whole month :D