Jouvert is known for body mud and now body chocolate

Karen Vernon

Before the road march on Saturday afternoon, revelers will be out from five o’clock in the morning for the Jouvert. The sacred mud has been prepared and this year, NICH is introducing the Coco Devils, who will be covered in chocolate. Organizer, Karen Vernon, spoke to News Five about the new flavor of the Jouvert.

Karen Vernon, Organizer, Jouvert

“I’ve done Jouvert I think for the past three years—I mean organized it for the past three years—and I was amazed the first year I went out there the amount of people that are out there four-thirty in the morning to get ready for Jouvert to start at five a.m. It’s grown, people are just energetic, they’re just ready to go and people who take part in Jouvert also take part in carnival because you know you have that time to rest in between and what I did last year—I was in Trinidad the year before and I saw this, they have different Jouvert bands, not just mud they use oil, they use paint, they use chocolate. So I decided to bring the chocolate back to Belize and I call it the coco devils. So we have a Jouvert band called the coco devils and if anybody is interested they can contact me and instead of using mud to smear all over you, you use chocolate and it’s fun. Some people at the end of Jouvert, they actually get on the Belcan Bridge and jump into the water, that is becoming a tradition as well. So it’s fun for people who don’t want to participate in carnival. You know you have some people who I don’t want to participate in carnival but you’ll get out there at five in the morning and muddy up yourself or chocolate up yourself and have fun.”