Should Carnival be celebrated in 2025 or not? The debate is raging as the trois jours gras approach. Whether one is for or against it, whether it takes place in some regions of the country and not in others, whether the peculiar coalition currently acting as a government maintains or abandons its plan for a “National Carnival” in Fort-Liberté is of little importance in this reflection. For even if reduced to a mere idea or hypothesis, Carnival will have fulfilled one of its essential functions: to offer society a revealing image of a repressed facet of itself. An image inevitably somewhat distorted, as are all those reflected in magnifying mirrors—perhaps caricatured or exaggerated, but not false.

Should Carnival be celebrated despite the rapes, violence, fires, destruction, and massacres that have accumulated and intensified week after week for nearly five years? Do the grim body counts in Artibonite, the West Department, and especially the metropolitan area justify infringing upon (immutable?) traditions and depriving the population of the other eight departments of moments of relaxation, enjoyment, or, to use an overused term, catharsis?