The Christmas festival has always contained a strong secular element, which has its early origins in the Roman midwinter festival of Saturnalia. It is this secular dimension which has probably allowed Christmas to become a truly national holiday in Guyana, enjoyed by everyone of whatever religious persuasion.
It is without doubt Guyana’s oldest surviving national holiday, since it goes back well into the days of slavery. It represented one of the very few free days granted to slaves, and this in itself was probably sufficient to qualify it as a time for celebration as far as they were concerned.
Although Christmas was first introduced by the Dutch, other groups here have made their own additions to the celebrations over time.
Food and drink, of course, are central to the festivities, and Guyanese have not been slow to embellish the basic Christmas menu with everything from pepperpot – the Amerindian contribution – to cornpone, or curried duck in the rural areas. In addition, in the old days there was a galaxy of local alcoholic beverages to choose from, such as jamoon, orange, banana or gooseberry wine.
Garlic pork, the special contribution of the Portuguese, has undergone a slight seachange in Guyana. In its home territory of Madeira, it is somewhat less spicy, being generally set in wine, rather than in vinegar as is the custom here.
In the old days, santapee bands added greatly to the excitement of the season. Earlier this century, they would make their appearance on the streets from November 1, although during these practice runs they would not wear their Christmas costumes. Again, the origins of masquerade would seem to go back to the slavery period, with the evidence pointing to a fusion of African and European masquerade traditions.
In one of the very few accounts of Christmas we have from the 18th century, Dr Pinckard describes parties of Africans dressed up, and with decorated headstyles representing helmets, crowns and the like, visiting their friends on neighbouring plantations where dances were held.
In the 19th century masquerading could sometimes take less exuberant forms than the one we are nowadays familiar with. According to the personal recollections of one author, various “masquerade clubs” sent their cards to the homes of the welltodo, announcing their intention of paying a visit on Christmas Day.
This they did, usually from around 5 pm onwards. They often made their appearance dressed in costumes associated with a particular European historical period. They would entertain their hosts with recitations and songs, followed by dances. The latter generally consisted of waltzes and minuets, or occasionally a quadrille.
Following the performance, the masqueraders were then regaled with food and drink. A vote of thanks to the host by one of the visitors ended the proceedings, after which they all bowed and moved on to another home.
Whether these were special masquerade bands, or whether they were just the regular ‘centipede’ bands displaying their theatrical versatility by playing out a different role in another context is not made clear. Whatever the case, according to one view, the masqueraders began to be eclipsed in the 1950s by the steel bands, which usurped their traditional Christmas function on the streets.
One Christmas tradition which the old people will remember, but which now seems to have died out, was the setting of the paddy pot, something which clearly had an Asian provenance.
Around the middle of December, a pot or pots would be set with water and paddy, and by Christmas the young plants would have started to grow adding a vibrant splash of green to the Christmas decorations. A pot of paddy that grew luxuriantly augured well for the following year, while sparse, sickly plants signified bad luck.
The institution of presentgiving seems to date back a long way in this country. Pinckard refers to enslaved children in the 1790s being given simple toys at Christmas, although how widespread a practice this was is very uncertain, and it is unlikely that it dated back much before his time.
In the 19th century, however, the giving of gifts seems to have become fairly common, and by the twentieth century presents were being hung on branches of local trees, which substituted for the northern fir tree, or on a Christmas ‘ladder.’
The giftgiving habit had the ancillary effect of helping to stimulate the commercialisation of the festival. Contrary to popular supposition, commercialisation is not a recent phenomenon, since as early as the 1840s local merchants were advertising the importation of various goods specially acquired for the Christmas season in the newspapers.
The early Christmas Annuals, in addition to their normal fare of short stories and the like, sometimes gave advice on presentbuying. Some of their recommendations make interesting reading, especially those from the Chronicle Christmas Annual of 1915, during the First World War. Their suggestions on the matter of gifts for soldiers fighting in the trenches, for example, ranged from periscopes to “phials of tablet medicine” like quinine, meat extract and lung tablets.
A “waterproofing winter outfit” was highly recommended for “officer friends,” although not, it seems, for ordinary soldiers. Should the real war become boring, the loving wife or mother could always send one of the “new war games” to keep her man amused.
Finally, there were suggestions regarding suitable reading matter for soldiers of a literary bent. “The fine, stirring ballads of Kipling, the sea fighting songs of Newbolt, and the Colonial yarns of Robert Service,” averred the Annual, “are the kind of thing to nerve the brain and sinew…”
If trench periscopes and phials of lung tablets are in short supply in Guyana’s stores today, at least the Christmas spirit still survives.
(Reprinted from SN, December 25, 1987)
