TriniView.com Staff Article
Event Date: January 06, 2007
Posted: January 14, 2007
Under the starry night sky, residents of the hillside Paramin Village in Maraval, gathered at the home of the Gregoires to celebrate Lewah, the last day of Christmas. Paramin is renowned for its strong farming community, its annual Parang Festival and perhaps most of all, the traditions of patois, which is a French dialect. It is also called French Creole.
As the Branga Parang Band set up in one part of the yard, people socialized and a large pot of food was being stirred by a friendly Paramin resident who disclosed that Paramin is a place of culture. As the band struck a few chords and stopped, a woman in the audience jokingly shouted that if they did that by her house she would shut the door on them. There was a hearty laughter.
The Branga Parang Band executed some lively Parang songs to much appreciation of those gathered. People danced throughout their songs. Branga means 'a mix-up' which is a good description of the repertoire of the Branga Band. In an interview with Triniview.com, one of the lead singers of the band, Robert Fournellier described the band's repertoire as including both Spanish and French songs as well as Soca Parang songs. The band is at least 20 years old and all its members are from the Paramin area. According to Robert, the band plays Parang all year round and even sings Reggae and Calypso songs in a Parang style. One of their lead singers is the singer of the famous Soca Parang song 'Chinee Parang'.
After the band played, people began to drift into the house, in preparation for the Crèche songs. While many Trinidadians are accustomed to Christmas songs being sung in Spanish, Paramin, renown for its pockets of patois-speaking people, is unique in that there are many songs that are sung in patois. Winston Gregoire would later explain that the Crèche songs, sung in French were traditional Christmas songs that welcomed visitors to the house. The elders of Paramin were very prominent in the Crèche singing. One resident expressed that old people have the key, and young people may not always realize the importance of what they have to share.
Winston Gregoire, a resident of Paramin, one of the main persons behind the Lewah, shared his perspective with Triniview.com. Winston, who learned the tradition from his grandparents, has been organizing Lewah celebrations for the past 18 years. According to him, in the early days of the community, the people would meet after they had finished their chores and the patois-influenced music would be what they would use. Cantique de Noel or French Carols would be sung to welcome visitors into the house. The songs are important to the community because it helps keep people together, and generates warmness within the community. Gregoire highlighted that patois is still spoken to a large extent in Paramin, but a lot of young people do not understand it because the older people would use it as a hidden language, to communicate information that they wanted to keep from children.
Speaking about the Paramin community, Winston said that it is predominantly an agricultural area and a lot of the members are related to each other. Some of the main families in the area include the Josephs, the Mendez family, the Fournelliers and the Romany's. Before the advent of WASA people would carry water from the springs and rivers to their houses. According to Winston, Paramin is a crime free area, where people look out for each other. He outlined that even in their gardens, there would be no fence separating different properties, but rather there would be a drain to separate the properties, and farmers would respect this principle.
He praised the elders for what they did in the early periods, saying that the farming and the general way of life has been of great benefit to Paramin as a whole. Speaking about the prominence of the elders at the Lewah, Winston said, " I maintained having the elders around, because I believe that they played a part. Before we were here, they were responsible for even our growing up, and the model and what they did in the earlies; the farming and their way of life, I believe, was of great importance and assistance to Paramin as a whole today. I would like to encourage more younger people to try to get themselves more knowledgeable in respect to the patois-speaking and also the Crèche as a means of up-keeping the traditional aspects of Paramin."
The winds of change have not escaped Paramin, and Winston explains that education, computer technology, interactions with different communities, and new residents moving into the area has all been bringing some degree of change to the Paramin community.
In his closing words, Winston encouraged those persons who are interested in knowing more about the patois or the French Creole to come to Paramin where they can meet persons who would be able to educate them in that light.
As the moon rose slowly over the hillside, D Blast Rhythm Section entertained guests with some very lively music. As we made our way down the winding Paramin hill, it was clear that the rich cultural traditions and the vibrant community of Paramin has a lot to offer the general national community.
Lewah Celebrations in Paramin Village in pictures:
www.triniview.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=156796
Paramin | Homepage | Special Events | Photo Gallery
|
