A week before the Grand Parade, Boston Carnival hands the road to its next generation. Junior Carnival is the youth edition of the city’s long-running Caribbean celebration: kids and teens in full masquerade costume — feathers, rhinestones, crowns, wings — parade through Franklin Park with their own mas bands while families line the route and cheer them along.

The point is succession: Carnival elders use the day to pass the tradition down, and the young masqueraders take the assignment seriously, dancing the whole route like the pros they’re learning from. Expect steel band and soca, island flags waving from strollers and shoulders, and Caribbean food close at hand. It’s one of the most family-friendly stops on the Carnival calendar — great for kids who want to see other kids in costume, and for anyone who wants Carnival’s pageantry at a gentler scale.