Whippingdetails

Whipping
In most runs, captains carry leather whips or braided burlap whips called “quoits”, mostly for a symbolic show of control as well as for mock anticks. In a few communities, however, whipping rituals, perhaps descended from the ritual flagellation of medieval Europe intended to atone for the sins of society, are central and speak more to the penance of Lent than the revelry of Carnival. I Hathaway, beggars in blackface gather food items, while the captain and his co-captains whip uncostumed young men, called “les soldats” (soldiers). Maskers in Kinder also walk and pretend to whip each other with rolled burlap sacks. In the Cacherie-Gheens area and Choupique, disguised young men armed with willow switches pursue even younger boys, who fall humbly to their knees and obey the captain’s command to begin praying. The maskers surround the supplicants and deliver blows just hard enough to sting.