This year, 2023, the celebration of the Christmas (or ‘Xmas’) Season has been somewhat restrained owing to the untimely and heroic deaths of five of our finest soldiers and also because of the bellicose and bullying threats of some powerful extremist politicians in Venezuela to violently seize nearly three-quarters of the territory of Guyana and destroy Guyana as a nation.

Thankfully, the national grief is diminishing with the interment of the heroes and the closure being experienced by their families, and the dangerous existential threat to the nation has been lifted by the Argyle Accord and the tensions which had enveloped Guyanese over the last several months has now receded. Therefore, there is still some space and opportunity to celebrate the traditional Guyanese Christmas.

In this offering, we will use ‘Xmas’ as the spelling for Christmas since it is reminiscent of the catacombs of ancient Rome and that era when Christians struggled to survive against persecution. Christians at the time used the Greek alphabet, which began the spelling of Christ and Christmas with the letter “X” (chi) and this alternate spelling was retained over the centuries. At that time, Christians did not treat Xmas as a time of celebration, instead, it was a time of reflection and where peace, goodwill, fraternity and loving-kindness, especially to the poor, were the themes rather than joyousness and merriment. Guyana’s present mood is similar and this year, we value and understand the theme of Peace and Goodwill more than the theme of merriment. Thus, wishing one’s friends and relatives peace and goodwill this Christmas is more satisfying.

Though the mood of Guyanese this Xmas may be reflective and restrained, the traditions of Xmas as marking the birth anniversary of Lord Jesus are very much alive and are deeply etched in the psyche of Guyanese, and this was clearly manifested when some decades ago, the Government of Guyana declared “the deemphasising Xmas” as national policy, only to be met with strong and universal opposition.

We will remind readers of these traditions. Most of them have already been manifesting themselves during this Xmas Season.

These traditions include cleaning one’s home thoroughly and ensuring that all household equipment and furniture are in spick and span condition. Then there is the lighting up of homes and some streets with fairy lights and other lights with the Xmas colours of blue, red, green and gold, each of these colours having its own mythology. Cakes have always been part of the Xmas fare from the time of Emancipation, and the three most popular types being black cake, fruit cakes and sponges, with black cake being the Xmas cake par excellence. Though for drink, many families have moved into using aerated drinks, however, homemade drinks, in particular, ginger beer, sorrel, mauby, jamoon wine and rice wine, continue to be appreciated.

Xmas music is ubiquitous at this time whether in the form of Handel’s music, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole or the many evergreen Carols. The part children play in the preparations in the Xmas Season is very important as it creates nostalgic memories which they would treasure all their lives; such would be their part in house cleaning or in the preparation of cakes and confections like conkey and various fudges and in the family reunion Xmas meal; and most importantly the toys and gifts they receive.

Gift giving is among the oldest Guyanese Xmas traditions. In the villages and in poorer areas like Albuoystown, housewives exchanged saucers with a few foreign dried fruit like dates, prunes, figs, and pieces of cake. As the country became more Westernised, it was always felt that gifts should be imported, foreign-made, and indeed, more expensive. In the present mood of realism and successful resistance to Venezuelan bullyism, it is easier to grasp the virtue of giving locally produced gifts.

The varieties of locally produced items which could make wonderful Xmas gifts are many and in the interest of space we will mention only a few: There are gold and silver handmade jewellery which could be had in 12ct and 18ct and sold by reputable jewellers; there are Amerindian craft such as hand fans, table mats, bows/arrows, hats, matapees, and Amerindian specialities such as sun-dried cassava bread and cassareep;

there are several manufacturers of world-class food and drink products such as E.B. Beharry, who produce a large range of Swiss formulated sweets with types like goldfinger which is a household name, a range of 100 spices of world-class packaging and quality and of course their curry powders and chowmein; Banks DIH produces a fine rice-based wine of various flavours, (we should remind consumers that there is nothing declasse’ in using rice as base – Sake and Maotai do – and whiskey and vodka use wheat) their range of biscuits with its crackers and vanilla cookies could well replace the Danish cookies which have become so popular at Xmas time and their patisserie bakes a variety of cakes including black cake and icing cakes on which customers could have names and greetings written in any colour they choose.

Demerara Distillers produces the best rums in the world and this is universally acknowledged with its 15-year-old in demand at the bars of all the major hotels and airports, its jams and jellies and cake mixes and Topco Fruit Juices are standard delights and its liqueurs compare with the best of Europe’s.

In this Xmas Season, the Guyanese Xmas traditions are being maintained in every corner of Guyana, in Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice and the tradition of Christmas shopping showed a sparkle which was reflective of the several billions of dollars of disposable income pumped into the economy in the last several months. Guyanese are enjoying a joyous Xmas Season which will culminate tomorrow in Xmas day.