Dania Duntin and Emma Aqui have played a lot of mas. Between them they have done Trinidad more times than they can count, and they came to Grenada thinking they knew what was coming.
They did not.
Jab is not J'ouvert with a different accent. It is not paint and powder and a rum truck behind you. It is older, it is darker, and it means something. By about half five in the morning on the Carenage, both of them had stopped filming and started listening.
So what is Jab, actually
The word comes from French patois. Diable. Devil.
Here is the part most first-timers get wrong. Jab is not devil worship and it is not a costume.
When the French ran Grenada, the church used devil imagery to frighten enslaved Africans into staying in line. So enslaved Africans picked that imagery up and threw it straight back, as satire. They covered themselves in molasses, tar and soot, the blackest things within reach, and made themselves darker on purpose.
In a world that has spent centuries telling Black people to be lighter, Jab says the opposite. Blacker is better. Blacker is power.
Djab Molassie is the older name for it. Molasses devil.
The chains you see dragging through the street are the chains of captivity, worn now as a symbol of freedom. The horns and the animal skins were worn to offend the people who once owned them. Some accounts trace it further back still, to the Egungun masquerade in Nigeria, where the ancestors come down and walk among the living.
It starts around four in the morning, in the dark, at the Carenage in St George's. A conch shell goes and the street moves.
Four in the morning is not bad scheduling. The devil comes out in the dark to frighten the real evildoers. That is the entire point.
https://youtube.com/shorts/jJF4dUbpGxE
The snakes
Yes. That is a real snake.
Live snakes, animal skins, horns, chains, sometimes a coffin. None of it is there for shock value or for the camera. Every piece of it refers to something, and the men and women carrying it know exactly what they are referring to. Ask one. They will tell you.
Nobody warned us how touchy it gets
This is the honest part.
Jab is hands-on. The locals will rush you and oil you down, and they are not asking first. There are very few boundaries out there. If you are used to Trinidad, where you can hold a bit of space around yourself, adjust your expectations now.
Go with a crew. Take a guy with you if you can. Keep your phone sealed and somewhere you can actually reach it.
And whatever you wear, understand that you are throwing it away. The clothes, the shoes, all of it. Oil does not come out. Do not wear anything you have feelings about.
The one tip that saves your whole day
Put a layer of baby oil on first, before the black goes on.
That is it. That is the trick. The oil sits between your skin and everything else, and the black lifts off instead of setting into you. Do it before you leave the room. Do your hairline, your ears, your neck, your nails.
Anyone who tells you a jab is impossible to clean off did not do this.
Getting off the road without ruining a taxi
When Jab winds down you end up around Wharf Road, covered head to toe.
Do not stand there trying to flag a taxi. Nobody wants to carry you like that, and you will spend an hour negotiating it.
Take a boat taxi. They run from the water along the coast and they will take you covered in oil without blinking. It saves the walking, it saves the argument, and it is genuinely one of the best parts of the morning.
Then check what your hotel has. Most places along that beach are set up for this and have outdoor showers, because they have been handling Jab morning for decades. Dania and Emma stayed at the Radisson and did the boat back every single day.
Jamie Lee takes on Jab
Jamie Lee came over from Trinidad too, and her run through the streets is the closest thing to being there without booking a flight.
The oil, the horns, the music, the movement. Carnival Glam Hub travels the region with the Glam Girls all season, and Jab Jab is one of the few things that stands completely on its own.
https://youtube.com/shorts/jI8Tfx9dUnw
Where to stay
Stay on Grand Anse. That is the answer.
The Radisson Grenada Beach Resort is the most central thing on that beach, about ten minutes from Maurice Bishop International, with a shopping centre a minute's walk away for oil, throwaway clothes and everything you forgot to pack. It is also where the Carnival Glam Hub is for Spicemas 2027, and the band route starts outside the hotel.
Anywhere along that stretch is a win. Spice Island Beach Resort, Mount Cinnamon, Coyaba Beach Resort, Blue Horizons, Grenadian by Rex, and Kalinago Beach Resort three minutes down at Morne Rouge.
Flights: the connection is the magic
Book early. Spice Mas is August and the direct seats go.
Direct into Grenada you have Caribbean Airlines, JetBlue, American, Air Canada, WestJet and British Airways, depending where you are flying from.
But here is what people miss. The connection is the magic. If the direct is gone or the price is silly, fly into a hub and hop the last leg:
- Trinidad to Barbados, then Sunrise Airways into Grenada
- Barbados to Grenada on LIAT, interCaribbean or Virgin Atlantic
- St Vincent to Grenada on interCaribbean
Two cheap legs beat one expensive one more often than you would think, and the Barbados hop is short.
And if you are coming from Trinidad and every flight is gone, there are yachts that make the crossing for Spice Mas, roughly TT$1,400 to TT$2,000. People do it every year.
A mini Trinidad, and then not
Grenada has boat parties for days and the fete lineup is serious. Wet, SHH, Lil Boat Cruise, and Soca Monarch, which you should not skip.
The bands to know are ORO Luxe, Lavish and Vybz Mas, the Yuma affiliate.
Then there is the part Trinidad does not have. Grenada gives you four separate road experiences:
- Jab Jab, the dark, the oil, the conch shell
- Monday Mas
- Monday Night Mas, the light festival
- Tuesday Pretty Mas, feathers, gems, the whole thing
Four completely different looks in about thirty-six hours.
Why they keep talking about it
They have done the big carnivals. They know what a well-run road looks like.
What got them about Grenada is that it is not copying anybody. Spice Mas is not a smaller Trinidad. It is its own thing, built on its own history, and the Jab Jab music coming out of it right now is some of the best in the region.
All three of them did Jab in the morning, then came into the Glam Hub and did Monday Mas and Tuesday Pretty Mas properly. That is the run. Get dirty, get clean, get glam.
Spicemas 2027
Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 August 2027.
Carnival Glam Hub is at the Radisson Hotel, central on Grand Anse, and the band route starts outside the hotel. You get ready and step straight onto the road.
Pre-registration is open at US$50 and closes 31 December 2026.
Secure your spot for Spicemas 2027
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Jab Jab? Jab Jab is Grenada's oil mas, named from the patois word diable, meaning devil, in which masqueraders cover themselves in black oil and wear horns and chains as satire turned back on the coloniser.
Is Jab Jab the same as J'ouvert? Jab Jab is Grenada's own form of J'ouvert, older and darker than the paint and powder J'ouvert of Trinidad, built on molasses, tar, horns and chains rather than colour.
When is Spicemas 2027? Spicemas 2027 runs on Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 August 2027 in Grenada.
How do you get Jab oil off your skin? Coat your skin in baby oil before you go out, then use oil again afterwards to lift the Jab oil before soap and water, because oil lifts oil and soap on its own only smears it.
How do you get to Grenada for Spicemas? Fly into Maurice Bishop International, usually with one regional connection through Barbados, Trinidad or St Vincent, and if flights from Trinidad are gone there are yachts making the crossing at roughly TT$1,400 to TT$2,000.
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One thing to be clear about, because people ask: we do not do glam for Jab. Jab is oil and paint and there is no makeup on earth surviving it, and honestly you would not want it to. We are there for Monday Mas and Tuesday Pretty Mas, when you have showered off and you want to look like yourself again.