'car.ni.val (n.) a traveling show; having sideshows and rides and games of skill etc.
Car.na.'val (prop. n.) a festival season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February and March. Carnival typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, masque, and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life.
These things are NOT the same.
Word on the street was that Jean Guillaume, our new VP Social, was inept. While he has yet to prove he's got ept, I'm certainly giving the man the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because the street's word is based on misinformation.
Mr. Guillaume wants to plan 101 Week with a theme of Carnaval, or to use a term that might be more familiar to us North Americans, Mardi Gras. Lots of colours and masks and partying and debauchery. Those of us around the Fed who heard and did not understand spread lies on the man, saying he wanted to have a carnival-styled week.
While the rumour mill is correct that the carnival day that the Fed has tried for a few 101 Weeks has failed, and making the whole week into that style would be disastrous, turning it into a street party with masks and dancing and fireworks is not something we've tried before, and certainly worth a shot. I, for one, admire Jean's creativity and hope it plays out the way he dreams.
In other news, Roxanne Dubois is thinking of opening a new SFUO business down at the tracks, and Ted Horton is starting a campaign to liberate Quebec from those oppressive, genocidal Canadians.
Creative no doubt. But it does have serious issues if it is to be anything styled like Mardi Gras.
ReplyDeleteIn a last ditch effort to raise attendance, the easily-maligned owners of the Ottawa Renegades started a Mardi Gras theme for the games, even handing out beads to each upper-South Side fan as they entered. To their dismay, things got out of hand when drunk people started taking off their clothes for beads!
Plus, fireworks are not allowed on within City limits unless around Victoria Day or Canada Day.
I'm not sure anyone intends to have beads or fireworks. The beads and associated nakedness are very much Mardi Gras, and I think Jean will be steering away from that and more toward Latin American-style Carnaval. But that's just speculation. It could be anything - it's a festival celebrated in different ways by a large portion of the world.
ReplyDeleteMy point was just that he's not going for a week of micro-events at booths like a lot of people accused him, but things are following the same functional pattern they have been. He's just looking for a way to add his own flair, and regardless of how it works out, it's admirable that he's trying.
The heck is the point of a mardi-gras without "Jerry Springer"-like beads? Does this mean we have to celebrate the Day of the Dead as well? It would only be fair.
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