August 7 marks the jubilation of freed people.  The story says that the original Freedom Day 1, August 01, 1834, found the freed population in church.   People have carved out a few hours around the dawn of the first Monday in August as a time of mas in the streets (perhaps to be another sacred mass) with the people completely free to express themselves. It is a dawn festival, marking the opening of the day, the age of freedom from colonial bondage. 

Joo-vay (jour ouvert) puts on display mobile musicians, dancing, colourful costumes and songs giving life to the cultures the slaves had been denied for centuries, and a lot of skimpily dressed men and women. If there is one festival that dispersed Africans should not give up it is Jouvert.