According to tradition, tomorrow, January 6, is the last day of the 
Christmas is universally celebrated as a joyous occasion with feasting, music, gift giving, greetings, fellowship, theatre, literature and flamboyant, spectacular decorations in homes, buildings and public spaces. It has gone beyond its religious origins to be a grand cultural, traditional, commercial and popular festival. Its commercial force is extraordinary, even incredible, having generated a mighty industry including music, literature, film, gifts of all types, symbolic and decorative items.
It has even generated its own mythology, folk beliefs, and legends such as Santa Claus and the magic of the mistletoe. Included in customary practice and decorations are the expression of stories, symbols, images associated with the original narratives surrounding the birth of Christ or those associated with the mythology.
Yet, it is a season steeped in traditions, many of them dating back to the Middle Ages in Europe while the season and its customs evolved. The Caribbean has generated its own traditions, some of which are common, but others which are peculiar to one country or another. For example, there are Guyanese Christmas customs, including kinds of food, that differ from those known in Trinidad and Tobago.
It is these traditions whose observance will be brought to an end on January 6. Up to now it is still considered appropriate to wish people “a merry Christmas and a happy New Year” or the more generalised “seasons greetings” because the season is still in session. But after tomorrow it no longer obtains. According to tradition, all observances pertaining to the season will cease after “Twelfth Night” on Monday. The traditional Christmas music is discontinued, and all decorations are taken down, the Christmas tree dismantled and the fairy lights turned off.
As has been mentioned, this festival is steeped in tradition. However, much of this tradition has faded and customary practices have waned, as for many today, the season ended many days ago. If we follow the tradition, Christmas lasts for 12 days, starting on December 25 and ending on Twelfth Night, which is January 6. There is some dispute over the dates, but to understand them would require an explanation of the origins, the history and the calendar, which is not the intention here. It is still of interest to revisit the significance of the traditions. In spite of the highly secularised nature of the festival today, many of these explanations take us back to the original customs sacred to the Christian religion, as well as the fact that many of them are based on pre-Christian (pagan) rites and the merrymaking of the Middle Ages. The “Feast Days” which make up the Christmas season are based on a combination of these.
For instance, the celebration on Christmas Day itself, is of the miraculous birth, known as the Feast of the Nativity – the First Day of Christmas. The second is what we know as Boxing Day on December 26 – the Feast of St Stephen, or the Second Day. The final day is the Feast of the Epiphany or Twelfth Night. This is said to be the day on which the Magi – the three wise kings from the Orient – visited Bethlehem and paid tribute to the baby Jesus.
To avoid confusion over these dates and days, it might be worth the effort to deconstruct the way these days were observed in mediaeval times. Each day was held to begin on its ‘eve’ – that is, the evening before. So that Christmas Eve is celebrated, as is New Year’s Eve, which are the days before the actual events. These “eves” are important because the celebration actually begins in the evening of the day before. That is why in some quarters Twelfth Night begins on the evening of January 5.
Another fascinating detail about Twelfth Night is found in some of the customs associated with it. Apart from the feasting on that day there were customary practices as part of the making merry. For the day in a social gathering, where there would be a master in charge, holding the highest position, the order was reversed and the role of head taken over by his opposite. The inversions and ‘disorder’ of that day invoke great fun. This was alluded to by Shakespeare in the famous comedy Twelfth Night, in which roles were reversed causing a certain turning upside down of order and good sense. Because of this, and because of the free spirit, the music and festivity that abound and the merrymaking in the dukedom of Illyria dramatised in the play, it has the sub-title “What You Will”.
However, never mind the intrigue and the interest inspired by all this rich background, Twelfth Night and the Christmas season are merely academic to popular consciousness today. Particularly in Guyana, there has been a diminishing sense of a “season” and no observance of the traditional 12 days. January 6 is observed in church by Christians, especially Roman Catholics, and it does serve as a date by which Christmas trees are taken down and spectacular decorations are removed. But traditions hold no importance in social practice and even the popular customs have declined.
The most compelling mark of the season is its commercial quality. Christmas is now predominantly a popular and commercial festival. Seasonal music can be heard in public places such as supermarkets and large stores from as early as October, as businesses seek to create an atmosphere to invite shopping. The seasonal spirit of sales and spending is drummed up and sustained for more than two months before Christmas Day. The volume and density of traffic on the streets of the city begin to build up just as inside the banks and at the ATMs, as preparations reach fever pitch.
However, apart from the parties in night clubs, seasonal festivities rapidly fizzle out after Christmas Day. In Guyana the ‘season’ barely makes it beyond Boxing day. This trend can also be seen in the indigenous tradition of the Guyanese masquerade. Even though remnants of masquerade bands appear on the city streets at the present time they merely serve as a reminder that this theatrical street performance exists and used to flourish at Christmas time. A few youths in minstrel costume accompanied by languid drummers who are unfamiliar with the music can be seen at street corners, but there are no bands, only the ‘disjecta membra’, the fractured fragments of masqueraders haunt the city seeking handouts from passing motorists. This once majestic indigenous cultural tradition is but a memory.
Yet, religious festivals have noted characteristics apart from the fact that they always move beyond their internal sacred significance once they are exposed to public participation. They develop a public outreach and become popular, often cultural, traditional and commercial events. In similar fashion, while the usual religious rituals and prayers associated with Christmas are observed internally among believers, it has a very powerful existence across nations, continents and peoples.
The celebrations will cease tomorrow night, but, as current traditions go, only a shadow of the vibrant festivities have managed to survive until today. Yet, ironically, the spirit and message spread abroad in the public outreach of the festival are expected to continue perennially among all mankind throughout the year. That is the spirit contained in the giving of gifts, the charity and concern for all humanity sung about in the songs, the festive life-force in the revelries and fellowship, the good cheer symbolised in the images of the bright star, the Christmas tree, and the lights. That is the extending of peace and goodwill to all men that is supposed to know no season and not meant to end after 12 days, but to prevail eternally among all humanity.