The Level of Uniqueness in Jamaican Traditions

Are Jamaican Traditions Unique? There is a lot of controversy about if there is any special tradition celebrated in Jamaica, which makes it unique compared to other places in the Caribbean, and in today’s blog we are going to discuss about that topic, taking into considerations 2 celebrations which are core and not as common, as the ones celebrated in almost every corner of the world. This is an important thing to take into consideration if you are planning to visit a place in the Caribbean, specifically because of the traditions and culture of that place, and for us to value our own culture in comparison to others. It is also important for Jamaicans, since traditions play a big role in creating our identity, and also for our general knowledge about other cultures around the world.

To begin we are going to talk about Junkanoo, which is very popular between people and is a dance performed especially on Christmas time, and even more on Boxing Day. Originally it was performed all year long, but then it became popular on that especial Christian celebration. But is it unique in Jamaica?

Unfortunately not, it has nothing special compared to other Caribbean practices of the Junkanoo, since even though it is very popular, this particular celebration is not as important or relevant as in, for example, the Bahamas, in which there is a complete festivity that includes a massive contest in which the winner team with the best music and dance, wins an amount of money.³

You might be thinking that in Jamaica is different than in other parts of the Caribbean, since Jamaica has not any European influence, but a special British⁴ one, yet the only difference is that they don’t include animals as in other countries, and they include British characters such as the queen and king, and other characters from the English masquerades, and depending on the region the English or African influence is stronger.¹

Even though it has no big difference with any other country practicing Junkanoo, there are some people which have stated that in Jamaica the atmosphere of the historian influences makes the practice special than in other Caribbean countries, beginning with the fact that in Jamaica the festivity is spelled as “Jonkonnu”.²

At the end, we can’t really blame Jamaica for this one, since it’s primarily the fault of the population which is not interested in following this tradition anymore, and are more in love with the British than the African culture, not to mention the aboriginals. Sadly but true, it is not very common to see this practice in Jamaica nowadays as it was at least 15 years ago.²

The other popular traditional practice is the Nine Night, which consists in a ritual when someone dies.⁵ When someone dies, at the ninth day a party should be done to celebrate the life lived by the death one, and if not, the soul of the person will haunt the family forever. Sounds pretty drastic for not having a party, huh? But this is a beautiful tradition that characterizes Jamaica.

The Nine Night looks exactly like a normal party in which people dance and sing⁶, which in other cultures… it might look strange, since you can relate death with sadness and negative feelings, everything but joy and happiness, right? But even though for our culture it strange, it makes sense since for Jamaicans is a way to honor death loved one. But we ask the same question, is it unique?

This ritual is not an aboriginal one, it comes from a mixture of African and Christian traditions which was born in the slavery era when it was believed, that a soul would have to wait 9 days until it goes back to Africa to finally rest in peace.⁷  But it is not celebrated only in Jamaica, it is practiced in many Caribbean countries, and it is true that regarding to this celebration, Jamaica is a more relevant  country in the Caribbean compared to others, and its position of interaction is better compared to the previously seen celebration.

Even though the Nine Night is more important than Junkanoo in Jamaica, it is not very different than in other Caribbean parts, since it follows the same concept and rules, such as not eating or drinking before midnight, and the common games such as Dominos.⁸ It is true that it’s evolved over the years, but at the end all the countries have done the same.

Even though, some people states that the way Dinki-Mini is done is different in some cultural aspects, even though there is no big difference⁹ and people from Jamaica, prefer to make just a simple celebration in present.¹⁰

In conclusion, Jamaica has no special traditions practiced when compared to other Caribbean places, and if someone is planning to visit this country to see something different and special… you can choose another Caribbean place if you wished, and you would not miss any special detail if you are only interested in the traditions of a country. Also, it is important since with it we can see that Jamaica’s identity has been modified over the time according to the ideology implemented by the British conquers, to the point that African culture is more popular and accepted than the aboriginal one (very important for Anthropogenic studies).

Also, if your country has any special original tradition, you can be proud of it! J

We have to take many considerations and evaluate in detail Jamaica’s history and traditions to understand what is happening in today’s society, since globalization plays a big role which is not deeply studied in this blog. But imagine if Jamaica would have protected its aboriginal traditions, or at least if they’d mixed them with the introduced ones… tourism would be even higher, their identity as a country (and the individual) would be stronger, and we would have a better perspective of the country, apart from just thinking about reggae when talking about Jamaica.

Thanks for reading!!! See you in the next post!!! <3

References

1: http://www.georgianjamaica.org/blog/traditional-christmas-celebration-in-jamaica

2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT5ZINjdfP4

3: http://www.bahamas.co.uk/about/junkanoo/what-is-junkanoo

4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiKDgWeEWDk

5: https://jamaicanculture101.weebly.com/holidays-and-traditions.html

6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6n773F1mmI

7: https://mysendoff.com/2014/04/the-jamaican-tradition-of-nine-night/

8: http://blog.sevenponds.com/cultural-perspectives/the-jamaican-tradition-of-nine-nights

9: https://mysendoff.com/2014/04/the-jamaican-tradition-of-nine-night/

10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VjMruyWiEg

Images:

Image 1: http://sites.psu.edu/cultureofjamaica/holidays/

Image 2: https://www.google.com.mx/search?tbm=isch&q=junkanoo+jamaica&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE66Gn4s7XAhWd14MKHayOCSYQvwUIIygA&biw=1164&bih=586&dpr=1.1#imgrc=ebX2DbVemqmhTM:

Image 3: https://mysendoff.com/2014/04/the-jamaican-tradition-of-nine-night/

Image 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mXrmGFDYVI