When I turned my car on last night to drive home from capoeira class, I heard a woman’s voice on the radio saying, “At one time in medieval France, one out of every four days was a public holiday in honor of Dionysus.” She went on to explain that these holidays were not simply times for folks to “go out and party,” as the radio interviewer posited in his question, but events which required significant preparation – of costumes, of dance steps, and of delicious things to eat.

She went on to say that throughout history, such days of public feasting and dancing have been closely linked to uprisings. Her examples were from Europe and the Caribbean. Every major revolt in the Caribbean during the something-hundreds (fact check me, oh fact check me) was aligned with Carnaval – a time when people step out of their regular lives to costume…