Christmas is a grand occasion in the Amerindian community of Moraikobai, with many former residents returning to celebrate with their relatives.
Located 96 miles up the Mahaicony Creek, the quiet community comes alive during the festive season with Christmas Carols and other music.
Some residents would also repaint their houses for the holidays and start cleaning, putting up decorations, new curtains and Christmas trees by the end of November.
They prepare to welcome their guests, who had migrated to the coast or overseas, to their home village.
Remington Adrian, who is self-employed and the chairman of the Moraikobai Tourism committee, told Stabroek News that the Christmas season is a very joyful time for the villagers.
He said too that they enjoyed themselves at a Christmas party that the church held last Sunday.
The children look forward for the season too, especially when some humanitarians would visit and present them with toys and other items.
The only traditional meal on Christmas Day is the pepperpot, which is the main breakfast meal in most Guyanese homes as well.
In Moraikobai, they prepare the pepperpot with chicken or wild meat such as labba or wild hog. The other meals would range from fried rice, chowmein and bar-b-que chicken.
A must for them on that day too is their locally made sorrel drink. They would also make the local alcoholic beverages like fly, cassirie and paiwari, ahead of Christmas and on occasions, like heritage day.
As a child, Christmas was a little different in some instances. He recalled that on Christmas Eve night, when he and his siblings went to sleep, his parents would wrap presents for them.
The next morning when they woke up and found them, their parents told them “Santa brought them. As we got older, we learnt the tricks in it…”
The villagers also enjoyed Christmas Eve night and Old Year’s night when the masqueraders would entertain them.
Leading up to the season, it would be hectic for the villagers. Many of them would make an effort to earn an extra income to ensure that their Christmas is “bright.”
They would engage in various economic activities, like craft making, the production of lumber, farming and fishing.
They would use the opportunity to do their Christmas shopping when they take their produce out to the market on the coast to sell.
Meanwhile, like “everywhere in the world,” the community took a hard hit from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which slowed down the economy.
“People could not go out to sell their produce because of the restrictions and that caused a strain on the village…,” Adrian related.
During that time, residents received food hampers and other items from the government, for which they were thankful.
“Only now since the country started to open up back that we are able to engage more in work activities and so on…,” he pointed out. Even so, they are still experiencing “financial problems” in the community.
Meanwhile, Adrian said that as part of the tourism drive, the community hosted visits from Visit Guyana, Wilderness Explorer, Evergreen Adventure, Dagron Tours as well as the Sand Safari Convoy that the Rain Forest Tours and Guyana Tourism Authority organized.
