Parents Plate
The following information was taken from Dwight Logan's book 'The Socio - Cultural History of Petite Martinique A fishing island Community'.
The 'Parent's Plate' is a sacrificial table, so called when portions of all the cooked food from a Saraca are placed on a table. The table is usually located in the main bedroom of the host home or at an old foundation or on a vessel or anywhere as seen fit by the organisers. The food for the parent's plate must be 'dished out'. No one is allowed to sample or eat before the parents plate is 'dished out' (prepared).
Family members would form a procession to carry the different dishes of food and goodies into the house to be placed on the sacrificial table. An elder member of the family or the head of the host house must lead the procession. When the procession starts, no one is allowed to look back for looking back is bad luck. The Parents' Plate must be in place before 6:00 pm. It is believed that the spirits of the ancestors usually move around from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am.
The table holding the parents' plate ust be covered with a white table cloth. There must also be the presence of candle, a glass of water, apint of rumm a table fork, a table knife, a spoon and a bouquet of flowers. After it is prepared, relatives and friens=d will gather at about 8:00 pm fro prayes. The prayers are usually said for the living and the dead. Since the 1970s to this date Mrs. King, a senior citizen and big drum dancer would lead the prayers. Preceding her was Angelina Bleau and John Caesar.
The Parents' plate must remain until dawn, except if it is for the occasion of a wedding or a Maroon, when it must be broken (eaten) a few hours after it is prepared. The people of Petite Martinique believe that their ancestors partake in the meal, though one may not notice it. At daybreak or before 6:00 am the food from the parents plate is placed in a tray and is brought out in the yard where children will feast themselves with the sacrificial food. Before partaking of it, the rice from the table is scattered around the house and the rum is poured on the ground for the dead who did not come in to partake of the food.
There are many occasions on which a parents' plate is prepared, namely;
i. For the occasion of a wedding.
ii. For the Launching of a Vessel.
iii. For the yearly anniversary of the death of an individual.
iv. During the occasion of a tombstone feast.
vi. At a Maroon festival.
vi. For the event of the blessing of a new house.
vii. Third, ninth and fortieth day after a person's death.
viii. When a dream reveals that a dead relative is hungry or the dead requests such.