FOR the first time in my life, I am spending Christmas and the entire Christmas season away from home. It is quite bittersweet, and I wanted to highlight this experience in this week’s column with the hope of spreading awareness about preserving Guyanese Christmas traditions. I know many people who often emphasise that Guyana doesn’t have “true Christmas traditions”, but who or what dictates what Christmas should be? Sometimes, we wish for snow and cold weather; we want real Christmas trees, or we want to drink imported foods. We do all of this without realising that our Christmas traditions are just as good and important. They are worth enjoying, and while our Christmas culture might look different from that in Northern countries, these traditions are worth preserving and promoting.

Many of us grew up with the smell of pepperpot being made and the aroma of fresh spices spreading across the house for days. Christmas is also very wet, as December is the rainy season in Guyana. One of my personal favourite times is when my mother decides to make the popular Christmas “black cake” or “rum cake”. It was a tradition passed on from my grandmothers to make cake during the holidays. My mother taught me, and I hope one day it becomes a tradition I can pass on to my future children as well. The streets are bustling with shoppers, the town centres are decorated, and most importantly, there’s music everywhere. I can specifically contrast that to what I’m currently experiencing in the United Kingdom. While I found ginger beer and rum cake, many of my holiday favourite foods remain in Guyana. I’ve also noticed less music, whereas in Guyana it’s central to almost everything we do. Christmas in Guyana is also very community-centred, whereas Christmas in the United Kingdom appears to be more family-centred.

While I am embracing the changes and enjoying this once-in-a-lifetime experience, I am also a bit homesick. I will dearly miss our traditions back home, and as my mother rightfully puts it, “you never miss the water until the well runs dry”. A friend of mine asked me, “Why are you chasing familiarity?”, as I hunted down every ingredient to make my own pepperpot. I reflected a lot on that and realised that whether I’m under grey skies or the Guyanese sun, the essence of home lives through me. I am not permanently away from Guyana, but I fear this is how traditions are lost along the way. I want to see our culture as resilient. We shape-shift to fit in and often feel embarrassed by who we are, but to that I say no more.

Being physically separated from my family and home allowed me to see how deeply my traditions are tied to me. There is a gap in my identity as we speak because while some might say I’m experiencing “the ideal Christmas”, it is simply not as fulfilling as the Guyanese Christmas I’ve grown to love.

I do not think I will ever take for granted the taste of pepperpot, the responsibility of sharing cake and food with neighbours on Christmas Day in foil wrap, or the disregard of an electric cake mixer (because nothing does it better than your hands). As I prepare to spend my first Christmas away from home, I want to urge every Guyanese reading this to make the most of this holiday season and to remember that our traditions might differ from mainstream versions, but they are ours to own and celebrate. I am not frowning upon people who also want to celebrate stereotypical ideas of Christmas. By all means, use your free will accordingly. However, you can do that without undermining our local traditions and celebrations.

I wish you all a safe and joyous Guyanese Christmas, and as you celebrate this festive season, remember always the traditions passed down to us and the ways we can actively continue to honour them. The distance has not changed me; it only clarified where my heart lies, and for that, I’m grateful for this experience. Like many Guyanese, whether in Guyana or abroad, I intend to indulge in pepperpot because geography is merely a matter of physical presence. I am still “Guyanese to di bone”, and in this case, in my heart too.