Caribana Carnival: The Biggest Street Festival of North America

The city of Toronto is also popular in the world for its cultural and traditional Caribbean carnival i.e. Caribana festival. The carnival is celebrated every year as the biggest street festival of North America. Every year approx. 2 million people take part in this festival with approx. 1.5 million people participation in the Grand Street Parade. The grand street parade is the final event of the whole carnival celebration, which is carried out in the final week. Previously, this North American street festival was known as “Scotiabank Caribana”, but in 2011, it was renamed as the “Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival” and is continued to be celebrated with this name since then.

 
Caribana is one of the first Caribbean Carnivals along with Notting Hill carnival and the carnival celebrated in New York City. This annual festival of Toronto was introduced to Canada by the immigrants from St. Lucia, Barbados, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua, Grenada and Dominica. In 1967, the carnival was first celebrated to give tribute to Canada’s Centennial. It is an astonishing and delightful reflection of various carnivals that are observed and rejoiced across the Caribbean Islands. It is a three-week fiesta of Caribbean cultural, music, visual art, cuisine, revelry and performing arts.

Street parade and the music are the major highlights of the carnival that energizes people and blows up the city. People participate and enjoy various events that are celebrated throughout the carnival celebration and dance on the rhythms and melodies of the popular Soca, Steel Pan, Reggae, Calypso, Chutney and Brass Bands music. The Caribbean Carnival Parade is the biggest event of the festival, which is going to be celebrated on August 1, 2015. Apart from this big and main street parade, the Caribbean community also celebrates a smaller pre-dawn parade, which is popularly known as J'ouvert.

Several Caribbean music artists perform in Toronto city during the grand street parade. These melodious parties are popularly known as "fêtes". To heighten-up the carnival celebration, bands also play a significant role. In addition to the musical performances, street parade and food festival, the carnival also catches attention of the people because of its elaborated, colorful feather costumes. Different types of quills are used to make fascinating carnival costumes. Ostrich feathers, cocktail quills, pheasant feathers, turkey quills, etc. are some of the commonly used quills for this purpose. These quills are used in a wide range of colors to make the carnival atmosphere colorful and vibrant.

The colorful and sophisticated feather costumes, props and the live dance performances give lively feel to the whole celebration and make it an unforgettable experience for everyone.

Multiple Uses of Lady Amherst Pheasant Feathers

Lady Amherst Pheasant is a beautiful bird of Phasianidae family. This variety of Pheasant is native to south-western China and Burma, and belongs to Galliformes category. This pheasant species closely resembles to the Golden Pheasant. The female birds of this species are less ostentatious, and have dull mottled brown plumage all over the body. Conversely, the adult males look distinctive with their black and silver head, colorful (red, blue, white and yellow) body plumage and long grey tail and rump. They are 43 inches or 100-120cm in length with tail covering 80cm of total length. Also, the female birds of this species look a lot like the female common pheasant, but have finer barring. They also look like female golden pheasant, but have more dark head and cleaner underparts.

The tails, usually known as feathers, of this variety of pheasant birds cover maximum body length, as stated earlier. At times, the quills of these birds are also referred to as “zebra pheasant”, due to their black and white striped pattern. Besides natural shade, these quills are dyed in a choice of alluring colors that include red, green, blue, fuchsia, lime, purple, orange and turquoise. These plumes are useful and important from several points of views. Some of the popular uses of these quills include:

• Decoration: The quills of these unique looking birds are perfect for wonderful decoration. You can either use them as plain displays or can use to make fabulous centerpieces. Also, these quills are utilized to make wreaths, and craft and millinery items for striking home interior and exterior decoration.

• Carnival Costume: You can give a distinct and sophisticated prettiness to your carnival costume by using Lady Amherst Pheasant quills. These quills are used to make eye-catching and elaborated costumes for various carnivals that are celebrated in different parts of the world. In addition to costumes, the quills are also used to make stunning costume accessories. These accessories include masks, headpieces or headdresses and feather wings. The long length of these quills makes them appropriate for carnival costume wings.

• Fashion Accessories: To give a stylish and beautiful look to your appearance, you can use these quills to make different types of fashion accessories. Fashion accessories that are made with these quills include earrings, ear cuffs, neckpieces, hats, boots, to name a few.

To make all the above stated useful things as well as for unique decoration, Schuman Feathers supplies fine-quality Lady Amherst Pheasant feathers in natural shade. We supply Lady Amherst Pheasant tail feathers in a range of sizes, and as carnival and party supplies.

Feather Earrings: Perfect Piece of Accessory to Flaunt a Unique Style

Fashion accessories or the jewelries are extensively used by women to beautify their look. Among various fashion accessories, earrings are pretty much preferred by females; though they are worn by both sexes now-a-days. An earring is a piece of jewelry, which is worn in the earlobe by way of piercing or is attached to the outer portion of the ear. Earlier, this fashion accessory is worn only in the earlobe; but with the changes in trend, now it is worn in different parts of the ear. In today’s time, women do piercing on the rook, tragus, and across the helix parts of the ear to look more stylish.

Earrings are made in a choice of beautiful designs using different materials that include precious stone, metal, glass, bones, beads, plastic, wood, and others. They come in a range of designs that vary from studs, small loops to large plates and danglers. Wide varieties of earrings are used to smarten-up ears and these varieties include 

Types of Earrings

• Danglers
• Studs 
• Huggy earrings
• Ear threads
• Ear spikes
• Hoop earrings
• Slave earrings

All these types of earrings add grace and evenness to one’s look, particularly women. Besides using as jewelry item, these types of earrings are also used as a beautiful item to gift someone on special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries or wedding. Earrings are made with different types of materials, as mentioned above; but apart from all usual materials, they are made and adorned with bird quills. 

Dangle earrings are the most popular styles of earrings that are used to make feather earrings. They are crafted in a way to fall from the bottoms of the earlobes, and their length varies from 1-2 centimeters. In some cases, the length of dangle earrings also goes beyond 2cm. Usually, these earrings are attached to the ear by means of thin wires that go through the earlobe and connect to themselves in the provided hook at the back. French hook design is a popular variation of these earrings. With this design pattern, one can easily hang earrings from the earlobe without any closure. Feather earrings are generally made and designed in French hook design.

Different types of quills are used in natural color pattern as well as in dyed shades to make smart and stylish earrings. Some of the popularly used quills are:

• Peacock
• Pheasant
• Ostrich
• Cocktail
• Hackle

To let you make feather earrings in numerous designs, shapes and colors, Schuman Feathers provides top-quality feathers in bulk. We offer wholesalefeathers of ostrich, hackle, saddle, peacock and pheasant birds for this purpose. These quills are available in a range of sizes and vibrant shades.

Pick-up your choice of quills to showcase a distinct style with feather earrings!

Baltimore Caribbean Carnival: The True Representation of Cultural Strength

Carnivals are the best way to relish and rejoice the culture of a particular country, and to bring large number of people together at one platform. It is a cultural celebration, which connects people in one color i.e. the color of love, passion and enjoyment. There are various carnivals that are celebrated in different countries and cities of the world throughout the year in various colorful and attractive ways.

Baltimore Caribbean Carnival is one beautiful and impressive example of carnivals, celebrated delightfully in the true spirit of togetherness and ecstasy. The carnival is world famous for its cultural association, as it a beautiful combination of two carnivals i.e. Baltimore Carnival and Washington DC Carnival. The Washington DC carnival is united and blended with Baltimore’s festival to make it one grand cultural fiesta. DC carnival is the popular and the fastest growing carnival in North America, characterizing the true Caribbean culture and encouraging the community participation. Also, for more than 20 years, it is a popular summer festival, attracting and welcoming people from all over the world and featuring 30 participating groups that represent the Caribbean, Latin America and the Diaspora in colorful feather costumes. These vibrant costumes show-off distinct themes and people dancing to the melodious sound of African, Latin, Calypso, Soca, Haitian, Reggae and Steelband music.

Baltimore/Washington Caribbean Carnival is officially known as “Baltimore Washington One Carnival”, and it is celebrated annually to encourage cross-cultural programs within Washington, DC areas and communities. The primary reason for celebrating the two carnivals as one grand carnival celebration is to expand Caribbean culture and to engage more and more people in the lively celebration. Another reason for this association is to educate youths, children and adults about the Caribbean art, craft and culture, and their importance. Street parades, music, dance, colorful costumes, food, art and craft and entertainment are the major highlights of the carnival celebration.

This year, the grand carnival festivity begins on July 11 and will end on July 12, 2015. Moving ahead, the celebration stars with Caribbean-style parade and goes on with other festive celebrations that exhibit live music and entertainment, scrumptious Caribbean food stalls, dance performances in vibrant feather-decorated costumes and much more. Apart from these performances, carnival costumes made and adorned with quills are also the major attraction of this Caribbean festival. Wide varieties of quills are bought and used to make spectacular costumes. 

For making carnival costumes in different shades, Schuman Feathers is offering premium quality quills of different types. We are providing wholesale feathers of ostrich, pheasant, turkey, peacock and other birds in a range of sizes. You can make your selection from our widest range to make fabulous carnival costumes.