THERE aren’t very many occasions I can think of that engender the sheer blissful feeling that is omnipresent at Christmas time. Trite as it might sound, I believe that Christmas is a joyous occasion, regardless of religious persuasion.

But the question remains, what causes this observance to be such a blissful occasion? Could it be that the underpinning religious significance has attached some sort of intrinsic and pervasive meaning to it? Or is it because the season comes at the end of the year as a catharsis (of some sort) that allows for reflection on the year gone by, and can usher in a renewal for the New Year?

Perhaps, the answer cannot be easily discerned because there is a myriad of factors that can influence individual choices and feelings. From my experiences in Guyana, I think there are certain things about the season that stand out.

The more profound features of Christmas, in my opinion, are the emphasis on togetherness and goodwill. Cognizant of this, I would say that one of the more poignant features of the festive season would be spending it alone. Before now, I never had a reason to ponder upon what prompted members of the Guyanese diaspora to return home, in their numbers, for the Christmas season. But now, I do.

It simply cannot be the allure of the Pepperpot or Black cake. And, while there is a thrill in the last-minute shopping on Regent Street, I don’t believe that this alone is enough to encourage any person to book a plane ticket, hop on a plane and come back home. For me, I think the allure lies in the kinship values our society places some emphasis on and the underpinning compassion present.

A few weeks ago, a Trinidadian friend asked me and two other Guyanese students to have a conversation so that she could study our dialect for a linguistics assignment of hers. You would think that having a conversation, Guyanese style, would be the most natural thing for the three of us. Except that it wasn’t; it was awkward and inhibited. We were eventually given certain prompts to help with the flow of the conversation, and it was here that the three of us realised that we come from a deeply compassionate country.

Our simple mannerisms of greeting each other with a ‘Good-morning’ or ‘Good Afternoon’, the growing volunteer culture that is being propelled by the youth demographic, and our will to engage in activities that would bring joy to others (simple things like communal Christmas tree ‘light ups’) are all microcosmic of the compassionate society we live in. And it was easy for me to realise and recognise this fact because being away in Trinidad had provided much leeway for me to observe the differences between my home country and here.

Added to that, the Guyanese trio were asked to talk about Christmas in Guyana, and one factor for us and as far as each of knew was the sheer emphasis on kinship. Again, this is reflective of the society that we live in.

Despite all that I have written thus far, the one pervasive feeling I have however is that for the first time, in a very long time, I am very disconnected from the usual happenings of the Christmas season in Guyana. I’m sitting in my school’s library, feeling increasingly nostalgic about the Christmas culture in Guyana. The Christmas lights on Main Street, the pavements of Regent Street flooded with people, the Masqueraders at every traffic light and street corner and the endless bottles of cassareep needed to make the Christmas morning pepperpot, all have a stronger appeal now.

At the same time, however, part of me is enthused to be experiencing the Christmas culture in Trinidad. Here, Christmas seems to be synonymous with ‘Parang’. I had heard my Trinidadian friends speak about ‘Parang’ as the ‘Trini thing’, but when UWI hosted its Parang event, I was pleasantly surprised when the performances were done in Spanish.

According to Trinidad’s National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS), the term Parang is derived from the Spanish word “parranda”, which means a spree or a fête. In the twin-island republic, parang evolved and grew and came to also refer to the song sung, especially during the Christmas season.

By the time this column is published, just a couple of days before Christmas day, I will be out of the parang country, however, and back in Guyana, fully ready to make up for the lost time. While I hope you all enjoy your Guyanese Christmas as much as I will, I do hope that the dynamism of this season also encourages you to share the joy with somebody, anybody.

Merry Christmas!