For us Martinicans, Christmas is a celebration that we look forward to all year. It means festivities with all our loved ones, good food, and lots of joy. Christmas is also, and above all, a matter of traditions that are passed down from generation to generation. Like the chanté nwel and their hymns, the salted pies and Christmas ham, the Shrubb and the currant syrup. For mainlanders who might have ventured here, Shrubb is a liqueur made from orange peel macerated in rum. It is prepared and enjoyed especially during Christmas festivities. Homemade or bought in a shop, it is a must-have at the end of the year, along with coconut punch, peanut punch, and other liqueurs.

In short, Christmas is about sharing with family, neighbors, friends, and even strangers. Celebrating Christmas in Martinique is celebrating Christmas like nowhere else…

This is perfectly illustrated by the lyrics of the song “Bons baisers de Fort-de-France” by La Compagnie Créole:

“Here the fields covered in snow We only know them in photos Santa Claus has no sleigh The air is too warm.”

Christmas in Martinican tradition

In the past, Christmas season started in early December, but in recent years, the “season” officially starts the day after the Day of the Dead on November 2nd, with the first flyers of the chanté nwel and the airing of Christmas carols on the radio. Chanté nwel is an essential part of Martinique’s culture. In fact, attending chanté nwel has become a new tradition.

Linked to Christianity, the majority religion in Martinique, chanté nwel involves gathering, initially with family or friends or in public places, to eat, drink, and, most importantly, sing Christmas carols. During the time of slavery, these religious songs were only sung in French in the church. Gradually, they became creolized with the introduction of refrains in Creole or ritournelles, accompanied by local instruments like the ti-bwa and cha-cha. But even an empty rum bottle and a fork will do the trick!

Every Martinican family has at least one Christmas carol book at home, which they carefully keep until November. It is a little booklet that gathers the lyrics of Christmas songs, the main and most well-known ones being “Joseph mon cher fidèle,” “Dans le calme de la nuit,” “Michaud veillait,” “Il est né le divin enfant,” etc.

Finally, despite all these traditions, Christmas remains a holiday for children and a Christian holiday. In the past, a branch of filao served as a Christmas tree, but Martinicans have gradually come to prefer store-bought Christmas trees because they are less messy. Houses are decorated, and some municipalities even organize competitions, while families gather in certain neighborhoods to admire the Christmas lights. On the evening of December 24th, believers attend midnight mass, which actually takes place in the early evening, and then they join their families for the start of the festivities. Christmas Eve is a very family-oriented event, with large tables around the grandparents. Daily life resumes on December 26th, while waiting for New Year’s Eve, but that’s another story…

"An nou chanté Noël" de Loulou Boislaville

Lyrics of the carol “An nou chanté Noël” by Loulou Boislaville

Let’s take the hymnbook

So we can sing Christmas

Let’s mix our voices and our hearts

And sing in unison

The only thing we have for us

Is our own Christmas

As long as our eyes are open

Let’s sing Christmas

CHORUS: Christmas! What do you bring to us?

Christmas! Come relieve us!

Christmas! Come heal us!

Christmas! Come save us!

Christmas! Come enlighten us!

Christmas! Come bless us!

Christmas! Come purify us!

For us Martinicans

Christmas is sacred

We have faith in God

Like our ancestors did

Christmas for us is life

Christmas for us is joy

Little Jesus is coming

Let’s sing Christmas

The Chanté Nwel groups

Many Chanté Nwel groups have been around for decades, such as Ravine Plate, Bakoua Nwel, Rassin’ Nwel, Kantik Vauclin, An Rita, Mazincoin, and more recently Yanm Sasa, Sos Kantik, Mandarin, Les Troubadours 972, Kantik Band, and many others. Today, Chanté Nwel has become more “professional”: people go less and less to their neighbors’ houses, but rather to reception halls. Local instruments are accompanied by guitars, basses, drums, and synthesizers. Even hymns are revisited, sung to the tunes of zouk, salsa, or the instrumental versions of current hits. For more than a month and a half, groups travel around Martinique and gather crowds who come together to share a festive and convivial moment. Each audience has its favorite group, from classic Chanté Nwel to “soirées”, there is something for everyone’s taste.

Celebrating Christmas in Martinique is celebrating Christmas like nowhere else, because the pleasure of sharing and gathering is expressed well before December 24th…

Memories of Christmas in Martinique

Aurélie : A little over ten years ago, before the “modernization” of Chanté Nwel, I had the opportunity to participate two years in a row in a ribote with a Christmas group, a tradition that consists of going from house to house singing hymns. The group also had the particularity of stopping in places where people work during the evening: a fire station, a maternity ward, the emergency room of a hospital… Workers or residents, we were always received with this festive and convivial spirit: after singing, we were invited to share food and drinks. This custom is being lost over the years. But some years, after midnight, I still receive a call from my best friend “Are you ready for a ribote?”. Always! and off we go to visit our friends until very late on December 25th…

Darvy : I was born in the south of France and lived in mainland France until the 4th grade. For me, Christmas was the tree, its smell, the falling needles. And so at the age of 8-9, we moved to Martinique. And I had my first Christmas in Martinique. And I discovered the filao… Instead of the tree, in the corner of the living room there were these large branches tied together at the base. The foliage does indeed resemble that of a tree but is less dense. But once decorated with garlands and gifts, the filao branches have nothing to envy from Christmas trees. And for me, Christmas in Martinique is the filao, this atypical tree that looks like a tree but is not, yet proudly embodies all the magic of Christmas.

Texte : Aurélie FC

Photos : Darvy Forestier