This past week Caribbean twitter were having a discussion about the various carnivals and wishing that so many of them didn't clash so people could get to experience all of them instead of having to pick and choose.
In all of the back and forth a young lady suggested that maybe we should move Crop Over to another time so that it doesn't clash with Antigua's carnival. Guys...bajan twitter went...OFF! They made that poor girl lock her profile and I felt really bad for her because when she said that with her whole chest I'm she really didn't know what she was starting.
See the thing is as many of the bajans pointed out to her...Crop Over is not just one day; it's a season. Kadooment Day is the culmination of the entire festival, but Crop Over spans over 8 weeks (give or take) and involves not only parties but several cultural activities.
One of the first documented accounts of Crop Over dates back to 1798 and was meant to be a celebration of the culmination of the sugar cane harvest. There were not only celebrations held on the plantations by the Planters but the enslaved also arranged their own festivities in their free (I use that word loosely) time. There was a dwindling in 1940 due to a decline in the sugar industry but records show that the celebrations never completely died out until eventually the Barbados Tourism Authority took responsibility for it in 1974.
The long of short of what I'm trying to say is, what y'all WON'T do, is act as though Crop Over just hit these streets and can be moved around to accommodate the newer carnivals. No, no...y'all came and found us here, and you will put some respect on our name please and thank you.
The National Cultural Foundation has a really great article with some background on the history of Crop Over and I really just wrote this short introduction to guide you into reading that so you can learn a little something on this day. Click here to get into it!