Culture of Trinidad and Tobago

Originally the celebration was confined to the elite, but it was imitated and adapted by their African slaves and, after the abolition of slavery in 1838, the practice spread into the free population.

Until World War II, most of these masqueraders portrayed traditional African influenced characters including the Midnight Robber, Police and Thief, Wild-American Indian, Bat', and Jab Mola individuals gave way to organized bands, which today can include thousands of masqueraders.

However, traditionally, the Carnival season begins on Boxing Day December 26 and soca and calypso music reign supreme over the airwaves.

Hosay is the local manifestation of the Shia Muslim Remembrance of Muharram in Trinidad and Tobago[3] (where is it spelled Hussay).

Calypso continued to play an important role in political expression, and also served to document the history of Trinidad and Tobago.

[clarification needed] Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to mid-20th century and spread to the rest of Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela.

It combines the melodic lilting sound of calypso with insistent kadans percussion, and Indian musical instruments—particularly the dholak, tabla and dhantal—as demonstrated in Shorty's classic compositions "Ïndrani" and "Shanti Om".

Rapso is a uniquely Trinidadian music that grew out of the social unrest of the 1970s, though it is often described as a fusion of soca and calypso with American hip hop.

The steelband movement developed in the postwar period with many bands taking names from war movies like Casablanca, Tokyo, Free French and Tripoli.

The cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago draws upon the varied origins of its people: Indian, African, Creole, European, Amerindian, Chinese, Arab, and Latin American.

[citation needed] African Creole food commonly includes callaloo, macaroni pie and red beans.

[citation needed] Trinidad and Tobago has produced many noted writers, including Nobel laureates Sir Vidia Naipaul, and other award-winning authors such as Earl Lovelace, Lakshmi Persaud and Michael Anthony.

are among the fastest growing religious groups, as are a host of American-style evangelical and fundamentalist churches usually lumped as "Pentecostal" by most Trinidadians (although this designation is often inaccurate).