Jonkonnu

Jonkonnu is Jamaica's masquerade, performed at Christmas since at least the eighteenth century, when enslaved people were given a few days at the end of the year and used them for processions that colonial authorities repeatedly tried to ban. The characters are fixed: Pitchy Patchy in strips of coloured cloth, the Horsehead, the Cow Head, Belly Woman, Devil, Actor Boy and the Set Girls, moving through the streets to fife and drum. The origins are debated, with West African masquerade, English mumming and other strands all present. It faded through the twentieth century and has been revived by cultural organisations and by communities in the rural parishes.

What you actually see

• Pitchy Patchy - the character in ragged strips of coloured cloth.
• The Horsehead - the masked figure that charges the crowd.
• The fife and drum - the rattling drum and fife that drive the procession.
• The Set Girls - the costumed troupes in the older form of the parade.

When to go

Christmas and the days after, with Boxing Day the most likely. Processions are informal and unscheduled, appearing in town centres and villages, so seeing one is partly luck; cultural organisations stage performances at set times in Kingston and at heritage events.

Honest expectations

There is no fixed programme and no reliable way to plan around it; many visitors never encounter a genuine street procession. Staged versions at hotels and festivals are performances rather than the real thing. The tradition is much reduced from what it was and survives unevenly across the parishes.

Nearby

Rural parish towns are more likely than Kingston; heritage events stage it year-round.