What is Parang? Well Parang is the soundtrack to Christmas here in Trinidad. More than that however Parang is also a culture, a way of life that sweeps through my island after the lights of Eid and Divali have been put away.

The What is Parang? webpage has a wonderful overview of the history and features of Trinidad Parang.

‘Parang’ is the present Trinidadian interpretation of the Spanish word, parranda . Parranda is the action of merrymaking and also refers to the group of carousers who serenade their friends throughout the year. The word parranda in general Spanish is used mainly in the expression andar de parranda, which in the modern Trinidadian vernacular is ‘to go paranging,’ akin to the Venezuelan parrandear, meaning not only merrymaking in the original sense, but also ‘liming’ or enjoying oneself, with or without music, moving from place to place with no time limit in mind. (Moodie-Kublalsingh 1994, 65-66).

Now the funny thing about parang is how, much like our food, it has also become a fusion genre. There is oldschool parang, which is the back in the day unadulterated stuff. But in the past 2 decades parang has also entered the popular music ‘party’ realm, first by melding calypso rhythms to become parang soca, and most recently by incorporating classical Indian rhythms and tonalties ‘chutney parang’. There’s also ‘chutney parang soca’. aiaiai!

Here’s an awesomely bad chutney parang video from Neeshan Prabhoo. It’s called ‘Maria’

Wikipedia has a pretty exhaustive entry on the parang genre as does the National Library and Information Service of Trinidad and Toabgo

So, there we have it. Christmas as Parang. It could only happen in Trinidad!

And in closing, so that all of these Traditional Trinidadian holiday recipes have a central bookmarkable spot…

TriniGourmet’s Official Christmas Recipe Round-Up!

• Trinidad Black Cake
• Sorrel
• Sorrel Rum Punch
• Ginger Beer
• Ginger Beer (quick)
• Pastelles
• Paime
• Punch de Creme/Punch a Creme/Ponch de Crema