TODAY is Christmas Day and our first reaction is to wish our readers and all consumers “Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year” and our traditional and sincere commitment to “Goodwill towards all men”.

Christmas is the oldest holiday in Guyana.  It was celebrated during the time of plantation slavery when slaves were given a holiday and permitted to consume as much sugar and drink as much rum as they wished.  It was the one day in the year they were permitted to visit friends and relatives in other plantations, and they did so to the accompaniment of much drumming and dancing. It is believed that the post-Emancipation Masquerade Bands originated from such visiting processions.

Whatever may have been the origin of the Masquerade Bands and other suggested origins, the Bands continued and became an integral part of the Guyanese Christmas.  The large numbers of indentured immigrants who were brought to the colony in the 19th century from Madeira, China, Barbados, and India each made their contributions to the growth of the Guyanese Christmas and by the end of the 1920s, the Guyanese Christmas with its unique characteristics had evolved.

All homes became immersed in a flurry of activity with thorough house cleaning and the renewal of furniture with re-varnishing and re-polishing, resulting in the pleasant odour of varnish becoming one of the smells of Christmas.  Cake making was done on the 23rd or 24th before Christmas and this involved the washing of salted butter, the “beating” of eggs, the preparation of fruits such as currants, raisins, prunes and almonds, and walnuts, the careful mixing of all ingredients with the correct quantities of flour, sugar, and rum.  Black cakes that had been prepared weeks before were ready for baking.  Baking commenced in the late afternoon or evening of Christmas Eve and the pleasant odour of cake baking was one of the smells of Christmas.  Christmas lunch and dinner were prepared.

Christmas carols and other Christmas music were broadcast throughout the Season and were the characteristic sound of the Guyanese Christmas.  The media carried stories of Christmas.  Public dances and house parties were held everywhere and live music was engaged, especially at the public dances.  The exchange of Christmas cards was a charming custom until the Internet killed it.    Exchange of gifts of cakes, homemade drinks and wine, jams and jellies, and local and foreign fruit were de rigueur of the season.  All homes and shops, even the smallest, were decorated with bright tinsel, artificial flowers including holly and mistletoe, and fairy lights blinking the Christmas colours of red, green, blue, and gold.  The poor were always remembered and given gifts of food and even clothes.  The entire society throbbed with nervous energy from the end of November and it was assumed that the joys of this national culture fest would be with us forever.

In 1966, Independence was granted to Guyana and three powerful, sudden and unexpected forces arose to destroy Christmas.  These forces were different from those of Marley and Scrooge since they were more fundamental.  In the first place, the government of the day made the “De-emphasising of Christmas” into national policy; then, with poor management and the rise of racial-political strife, the country fell into an abyss of economic disaster with imports almost ceasing; and disastrous economic hardship combined with the growth of authoritarianism engendered hopelessness which caused more than half the population to emigrate from the country.  The society fell into disarray and the remaining population’s sole concern was survival.  But so deeply rooted in the Guyanese psyche was Christmas that it managed to survive this tsunami of destructive forces.

It survived in a much-weakened form with most of its traditions shorn away and these could only now be recalled nostalgically.  Gone are the many masquerade bands, the exchange of Christmas cards and gifts of homemade cakes and drinks and fruit, the public dances and numerous house parties, and the overwhelming feeling of joyousness that enveloped the society at this Season.  The Guyanese Christmas is, however beginning to re-emerge but in a different, though still recognisable form.   Cakes are mostly ordered from patisseries, aerated drinks and reconstituted fruit juices have replaced the homemade, cocktail parties have largely replaced house parties, families come together for reunions since so many of them live elsewhere, and so on.
Christmas is now in good health and is growing stronger each year.  With Guyana being an oil-producing country, many Guyanese from the Diaspora are returning and many of the old customs are being resuscitated. Decorations are beginning to be as lavish as formerly and remembering the poor is on the upsurge. Gift-giving is no longer homemade products but is largely replaced by imported confections and various manufactured items.  Christmas is beginning to resemble that of the urban developed countries and many think that this is inevitable as Guyana, as a wealthy oil-rich country, begins to enter the club of the modern developed world.  Many are however convinced that the “folksy”, personalised ethos of the old Guyana Christmas could never be effaced and will be quietly synthesized into the ‘developed- country’ style. But all Guyanese believe Christmas will never disappear from Guyana and grow stronger.