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.