Kadooment Day 2020: What is Crop Over? Why and when is it celebrated?

Kadooment Day is a public holiday in Barbados on the First Monday in August. It denotes the finale of the six-week Crop Over festival and is one of the most colorful and energetic of the Caribbean carnivals.

What is Crop Over in Barbados?

This is an annual festival praising the tradition of the last harvest and delivery of sugar canes for the season, the origins of which go back to the 1780s.

Crop Over Festival 2020 Kadooment Day Band Lists The Crop Over Festival is a 3 month-long festival of Barbadian music, arts, food, culture thus considerably more. Barbados closes the festivities with a grand carnival parade know as Kadooment Day.

Thinking about this, why is it called Crop Over?

Its beginnings can be followed back to the 1780s when Barbados was the world’s biggest producer of sugar. Toward the finish of the sugar season, there was consistently a tremendous festival to mark the culmination of another successful sugar cane harvest – the Crop Over festival.

What dates are Crop Over 2020 in Barbados?

Crop Over 2020 Dates Grand Kadooment will be held on Monday, August 3rd, 2020. Significant events, for example, Soca Royale, Bridgetown Market, and the Pic-O-De-Crop competition happen in the approx. 10 days going before Grand Kadooment.

The usual Kadooment Day activities have been canceled after the Government forced limitations earlier this year to restrain the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Kadooment Day History

The Crop Over Festival is the traditional finish of the Sugar cane season and has been commended for more than 200 years.

Sugar cane was first acquainted with Barbados toward the finish of the 17th century. It made Barbados home to one of the world’s greatest sugar industries. This implied a huge workforce was required and slaves and contracted workers were brought from Africa. It was these laborers who additionally brought the traditional harvest festival of Crop Over from Africa.

From that point forward this signal of the finish of the sugar cane harvest has developed into Barbados’ biggest national festival, which lasts six weeks from May and culminates in Grand Kadooment on the first Monday in August.

‘Kadooment’ is a Bajan phrase that implies a large party.

On Grand Kadooment, a parade of Masquerade Bands with around 1,500 revelers happens on the streets cheered on by the crowds of spectators attempting to make themselves understood over the beat of the calypso music. Toward the finish of the parade, the bands are judged and keeping in mind that there is a challenged Designer of the Year prize, for most the focus is on having fun.

Other Caribbean nations observe Carnivals during this season and keeping in mind that they are like Kadooment, they depend on a mixture of the European pre-lent festivals as well as the African impacts and even keep the names of J’Ouvert and Mardi Gras. Kadooment contains none of the religious elements from these carnivals.