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local Friday 3 February 2023

History of Carnival in Aruba

(VisitAruba.com) – Each Halloween, Christmas and
year in January and Febru- Carnival, and became the
ary, Aruba celebrates an- first step on the road to the
other edition of its popular carnival celebrations that
and impressive Carnival we know today.
season. The incredible at-
mosphere and cultural di- 1945-1954
versity during carnival is During these years, the
definitely something that Lago Refinery began
you need to experience. reaching its employment
Carnival has its origins in peak, with most of the re-
the 1920s, and it evolved cruiting done in the English-
through different cultural speaking islands in the Ca-
influences to arrive to what ribbean, namely Trinidad, the first public carnival for
we know and love today. Jamaica and British Guy- the entire island, under a
ana. These English-speak- (temporary) Central Carni-
1921-1945 ing migrants were the first val Committee. With Club
The first signs of Carnival to organize a parade in Tivoli as a host, the repre-
celebrations began in San Nicolas for the allied sentatives of various social
1921, when some of the victory in World War II. It clubs held a meeting to co-
many social clubs would was these immigrants who ordinate their efforts for a
have parties with cos- enriched Aruba’s Trinidadi- single, unique Carnival pa-
tumes. These parties would an-style Carnival. rade in Oranjestad, com-
take place at the venues of Meanwhile, the carnival bining steelband, floats
the social clubs and were celebrations of Carnival at and musicians in costumes
primarily elite balls with Eu- the social clubs were be- and masks. The Carnival
ropean style, like debutant coming bigger and bigger. Committee organized the
balls and costume parties Every club had a Carnival first Carnival Queen elec-
to celebrate the festivities Queen election on the is- tion.
of the season. After some land, and the first parades In 1957, the tradition of
years, the Americans in San were organized by Aruba’s having two big parades
Nicolas who were work- oldest social club, Tivoli. began; the first in San Nico-
ing at the Lago Refinery las and the second in the
introduced their own cel- 1954-1965 capital of Oranjestad. After
ebrations for the season, The third era of Aruba’s eight years, Calypso and
with American style. These carnival began when the Roadmarch became an
seasonal festivities were native Aruban and Eng- integral part of the Carnival
mainly centered around lish groups joined to plan season with the introduc-
tion of Calypso contests.

1966-present
The first year of this era was
known for the establish-
ment of SAC – The Aruban
Carnival Foundation. This
committee was founded
at exactly 11:11am on the
11th day of the 11th month,
known as Fools Day. The
Committee was the main
organizer of the Carnival
festivities, however, it was
not the only one: In 1981,
Tivoli Social Club estab-
lished the Lighting Parade.

Nowadays, Aruba’s Carni-
val has grown to become
one of the biggest in the
Caribbean, with an entire
month of parades and ac-
tivities.
For more information, visit
https://www.visitaruba.com/
things-to-do/carnival/arubas-car-
nival-history/
To see more photographs
of the history of Aruba’s
carnival, visit the archives
of the National Library of
Aruba https://archive.org/
search?query=carnaval+aruba