It’s Christmas in Martinique, an overseas region of France in the Lesser Antilles. Here are 4 vital components of local tradition.
Cordial
Shortly after All Saint’s Day in November, there is a seasonal abundance of oranges and mandarins on the island. For this reason Shrubb, an orange liqueur, is Martinique’s traditional Christmas beverage. You can buy a commercial bottle from any grocery store, but all the best ones are homemade.
Macerate peels of oranges, mandarins, and tangerines in white rum with cane sugar and other spices, and then leave the bottle in the sun to allow the flavours to marinate. It’s similar to Cointreau, though slightly spicier.
Other festive drinks you should stock up on are Punch Coco (a creamy rum punch made with coconut milk), Alexandra (a creamy grenadine-based liqueur), sorrel (a juice made with hibiscus flowers), and, of course, champagne.
Cantique
By mid-November, you’re able to buy An Nou Chanté Noël, a collection of French Christmas carols that differ lyrically from those in mainland France. The choruses are often in Antillean Creole, the French-based creole spoken in places like Haiti, Dominica, and French Guiana. The hymns are sung to the rhythm of beguine, a style of music originating in Martinique that’s characterized by the tambour bèlè (an open-bottom drum with a goatskin head) and the ti-bwa (two wooden sticks that play on the back of the tambour), and call-and-response.
These Christmas carols are strictly reserved for the period from Advent until the night of Christmas, and this booklet will be your lifeline at the traditional Martinican celebrations called Chanté Nwel.
Chanté Nwel
Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to be invited to a family or small community Chanté Nwel, where everyone brings traditional Martinican Christmas fare and drinks to share, and everyone sings and dances together. The most heavily attended Chanté Nwel are those that feature the best Kantik groups, and are essentially large concerts with people holding their booklets and singing songs like “Tire le cochon” (“Gut the Pig” — more on that shortly) to the tune of “Jingle Bells” and dancing.
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