One might have thought that the pandemic would serve to realise a measure of restraint. We got it wrong… well, not altogether so. The faint-hearted may have stayed away but Christmas is what it is. Like clockwork, coastal Guyanese, as tradition demands, have turn their thoughts and attention to what we loosely describe as the ‘festive season’… as though there are no other festive seasons.
Christmas Shopping is ‘a must’. Setting tradition aside, it is purely a matter of acquisitiveness. Here it becomes a matter of descending upon every store and every street-vending ‘establishment’, foraging for gifts, floor coverings, curtains, artificial flowers and decorative paraphernalia… the list is unending. Downtown ‘GT’ is assailed by a sea of bodies… preoccupied with purchases and with the timelines associated with ‘putting away’ for Christmas. The customary cutoff point, traditionally, is some time in the wee hours of what we call Christmas Morning.
Part of the outbreak of seasonal enthusiasm that we have seen this year may well have had to do with a ‘disease’ known to Guyanese as ‘Buck Sick’, a contrived ailment that derives from some repetitive ordeal. You reach a point where you refuse to endure it anymore. That is what appears to be happening this time around.
The virus had first appeared in 2019 gathering a head of steam to the point where less than a year later it had acquired pandemic status. Initial fear, novelty, had resulted in a surfeit of mask-wearing and social distancing. Christmas 2020 was a tough one. This year, even with the portents for the persistence of the pandemic being far from encouraging, people had become fed up of confinement to the point where they had readied themselves to run risks. Omicron? Christmas shoppers were not batting an eyelid. The shopping had to go on! Significant numbers of Guyanese appeared to have struck a sort of ‘wah gah fuh happen, gah fuh happen’, let the chips fall where they may posture.
Regent Street embraced its long-lost hum. Stores were being patronised and worryingly it appeared that at some points social distancing had been put to one side.
The indomitable pavement vendors were there too. Frankly, they had never left… altogether. They were displaying their wares with a kind of aplomb that bespoke grit and determination. The pavements, once again, had become sufficiently convenient to cause it to be more worthwhile to use the roadway. Bourda market, too, was well populated. Driving on Regent Street became, again, the indulgence of fools. Downtown, Muneshwar’s was enjoying a proverbial windfall.
Some time ago it was announced that social distancing had done a disappearing act and that contingents of policemen had be dispatched to ‘the four corners’ in an effort to retrieve it. But on a decidedly positive note, most shoppers were wearing masks and wearing them in the correct manner. The stores, all of them, were offering customers sanitising upon entry.
Guyanese (maybe not all but a sizeable majority) appear adamant that Christmas and its activities are inviolable. The various vendors and shop owners, it seemed, couldn’t agree more.
