AT Christmastime, there are many distinctive things about Guyana. There is the pepperpot and black cake that must be in your kitchen, and the masqueraders and busyness of Regent Street.

During this time, too, it is almost equally as important to have apples and grapes on your kitchen table, as it is to have a big ol’ Christmas Tree in your home.
You must have heard eager fruit vendors shouting, “Five apples fuh $300!” or “$700 ah pound ah grapes!” some time while doing your Christmas shopping. You might even find someone with a trolley passing by you, seeking to sell these fruits.

Or perhaps you bought groceries from the supermarkets where you would have seen shelves laden with apples and grapes in many shapes and colours. And alongside the butter cookies, walnuts and assortment of chocolates and candies of course!
But why do these fruits play such an integral role in the Guyanese Christmas celebration?
According to one fruit vendor named Kwesi on the northern outskirts of the Stabroek “Big” Market, apples and grapes have been part of his family’s Christmas tradition for as long as he can remember.

“It’s a Christmas thing,” he said, adding: “It’s to decorate the table, yuh know!”
It was Kwesi’s opinion, too, that Guyanese preferred these fruits over the local juicy mangoes, cherries and pineapples because they are imported fruits. He explained further that this doesn’t mean that Guyanese are ‘foreign-minded’, but simply because Christmas represents a culmination of festivities and the year in general, thus these fruits reflect their willingness to celebrate grandly.

Another fruit vendor wedged between the busy Robb Street traffic and the overflowing pavement, named Harry explained that the importation of apples and grapes increase exponentially during the Christmas season.
He opined that Guyanese seem to prefer these imported fruits during this season because they would get local fruits throughout the year. But, like Kwesi, he thinks that Christmas is a time to splurge.

And finally, Narine, another fruit vendor with an immaculate and extensive setup of apples and grapes (and bananas) just in front of the Stabroek Market related that these fruits add to the colour of the season.
Maybe he was speaking about the bright red and green apples and grapes aligning with the season, which is associated by those colours. Or maybe he meant that in a more general sense, where people like having them because their bright colours made them attractive.
A sudden torrential downpour deterred him from explaining further what he meant to the Guyana Chronicle though.

Local Christmas celebrations reflect entrenched traditions birthed from the unique blend of the country’s ethnic groups or those cultures that would have been changed or adapted due to the process of acculturation.
And while it may be unclear how this apples and grapes tradition also became entrenched, it is certain that it is a healthy one that Guyanese are eager to bite into.