DYING TRADITIONS

Dec 11, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Most overseas- based Guyanese long for a traditional Guyanese Christmas. They miss the intimacy of the season; they miss the local cuisine; they miss the good-hearted spirit that characterizes Christmas back home; they miss the local parties and the fun of the season but most of all they miss the simple things that remind them that they are back in Guyana.
Christmas cards are now going out of fashion. Long before the holidays approached, the Guyana Post Office Corporation would remind Guyanese about the deadlines for posting their Christmas mail so that it can reach its destination on time.
There is no need for such reminders today because the number of Christmas cards that are sent out these days is just a fraction of what used to be sent before. In the old days, families used to collect dozens of cards and one of the things that used to be done with these cards is that they would be arranged into a lovely collage in the shape of a Christmas tree, which would be pasted on a wall, or simply strung up on a string.
Today, the sending of Christmas cards is on the wane. It is a dying tradition and one that needs to be resurrected.
Then there were the little small envelopes that were left by the postman and garbage collectors. Each home would be required to put a little something into each envelope as an annual token of appreciation for the services that were provided by the refuse collectors and the postal employees.
These employees received a fair bit of money at Christmas as a result of the generosity of the homes for which they provided a service.
Today, the postal workers and garbage men still leave their envelopes and often they will tell you that when they hand these out, the residents ask what it is for. Many people do not know that they are supposed to leave a few hundred dollars in those envelopes and when the time comes for the envelopes to be collected it is often either empty, contain only “small change” or cannot be found.
That tradition of giving to these workers is being lost and it is sad because many of them are lowly paid employees and look forward to the little extra cash for the holidays.
Even sadder, are the masquerade bands that used to be such a treat over the holiday season. The masquerade dancers used to come out into the streets and strut all their creative moves. There would be a Mother Sally and a Mad Cow to scare the kids. It was a creative and cultural art form that was an integral part of Guyanese Christmas.
Today what passes for masquerade is an embarrassment. A few kids poorly attired and with not much of the flair of the old bands, go out into the streets where there is moving traffic, stand in front of a vehicle hand outstretched soliciting a donation. This is not masquerade. The public is being shortchanged by these masquerade dancers. They are not putting on a performance. They are begging alms.
Something needs to be done about this art form. There is obviously a need for training but more importantly, it is dangerous to have these performers on busy streets standing in front of vehicles. Someone is going to get badly injured one day and perhaps only then will the authorities decide to stop this dangerous practice.
Finally, there is the dying tradition of readying homes early for the holidays. As you go through the country, it is shocking to note that with just about two weeks to go before Christmas, many homes are still not decorated. Some are only now in the process of being cleaned.
This is quite unlike the old days when Christmas preparation began in the last two weeks of November as furniture was taken out reupholstered and polished, homes were cleaned and in some cases painted so that by the beginning of December, the new blinds and curtains could be draped and decorations strung up.
Today, people simply go out and buy new furniture and new blinds. They throw out all the old stuff and get new ones. No wonder there is not much garbage around, more than we can process.
People are not taking care of things the way these used to and are freely throwing out the old and replacing it with the new.
Yet there is within all, that longing for the old, that nostalgia that comes with remembering the past and observing traditions that. Perhaps these changes are the price that we have to pay for modernization, for social progress.
But perhaps also, when these traditions go into remission, there is really nothing left because what matters most is traditions, traditions, traditions.

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