Carnival of Guyana
Carnival · Cayenne, Guyana (France)
The festival
It is said that the longest carnival in the world is: in Guyana, he runs every weekend from the first Sunday after the Epiphany until Wednesday of Ash. His own genius holds in one character: the Toululou, anonymous queen of the masked ball of Saturday evening, in the dancings known as "universities". From the head to the hidden feet — dress, gloves, wolf, cap, transvestite voice — it is she who invites men to dance the piké djouk, and the habit is that one cannot refuse.
Sunday afternoon belongs to the big street parades — Cayenne around the Palmist Square, Grand Parade du Littoral in Kourou — and to the emptying of dawn. The greasy days close the season: parades of the Red Devils on Tuesday, all in black and white on Ash Wednesday, until the incineration of King Vaval, who buried the carnival until the following year.
Good to know
The character of Touloulou and the paré-masqué ball are listed in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage (France).