From the Diaspora…NO GUYANESE EASTER IN THE DIASPORA

Mar 31, 2013 News

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By Ralph Seeram

Outside of Christmas I think most of us in the Diaspora would really like to be home for the Easter Celebration. We would like to enjoy that four-day holiday weekend from Good Friday to Easter Monday. Even though Good Friday is considered the holiest of days for Christians and the “rum shops” are closed, the sporting starts from Good Friday. Some Christians like me went drinking right after Good Friday service.
Here in the U S the Federal Government does not allow a four-day holiday (except for Thanksgiving), three days is the maximum; they do not want the banks to be closed for more than three days. The premise is basically becoming obsolete in this digital age. In an age of online banking, debit and credit cards, no one really needs to go physically to the bank these days; most people do not even carry cash. For the past month I have been carrying around a hundred dollars in my pocket “just in case” I have not spent it even though I have made thousands of dollars in transactions.
Everything is electronically done.  I don’t even have to go to the bank to deposit a check. I simply take a picture of the check on my iPhone and deposit it electronically.
Good Friday and Easter Monday is not even a holiday here, it is business as usual, the churches look forward to Easter Sunday however, it’s the day when almost everyone turns out for Easter Service and the collection plates are richer than usual. While you my readers are reading this article Easter Sunday morning I will be in church, one of those who surprise the pastor by turning up for Easter Service, I do have some catching up to do though with my tithes though as I am a few months behind.
This past week was a good time for us in the Diaspora to be in Guyana, with all the holidays and festivities this week leading up to the Easter holidays. I think what most of us in the Diaspora miss is the spirit of camaraderie you get with your “rum shop” friends as my mother would call them as, well as family. For me I miss New Amsterdam and my little hometown, Smythfield. The holiday will start at EJ bar better known as Jardine’s bar which was situated at the corner of Winkle and Vryheid Street. There all the “boys” would meet, if you wanted to know the whereabouts of a friend you check with Jardine’s bar first.
While I’m on this nostalgic trip of Easter in Guyana, is also raises tinge of sadness, as most of my “drinking and sporting buddies” are no longer around. They all died at an early age, some due to too much alcohol, and some for not taking care of themselves health wise. I have often been reminded by my family that if I were still in Guyana I may have suffered the same fate. If I am to put a positive aspect to that, I would say that at least I would have died among TRUE friends.
As a father with two kids in Guyana, Easter took a different turn from when I was a bachelor. The weekend would be spent making kites for the kids (yes I made my own kites). What is now Vryman’s Erven was an abandoned farm, all “bush” but filled with a lot of “paste trees” which was used to paste the kites.
Those “paste trees” seemed to know when Easter came around as they would bloom at precisely around that time for you to get the bunches of cherry-like paste.
Easter Monday friends are invited over; the wife would make a big “spread” making all sorts of Indian sweet meats, cakes, the usual Indian foods etc. I do recall my friend Adam being over with his family a few Easters. The kites I made were too big for the kids; I had to tie my son to a coconut tree to avoid him being pulled away into the sky, quite a few little boys I recall got dragged away by powerful kites. Watching on You Tube I can see Easter is still a big party weekend, at least in Berbice. I saw some videos of the big “party” at Number 63 Beach.
Since the Berbice Bridge was completed I understand it got bigger as folks from Georgetown and other parts of the coast make the trip to Number 63 beach on Easter Monday. While the party is on at the beach, here in Orlando, Monday is going to be “business as usual”; I am thinking I should really make plans to be in New Amsterdam next Easter.
Today my daughter has invited some friends over for Easter lunch. She has asked them to bring their kites so we can create a spirit of Guyanese Easter. These are triangular-shaped plastic kites that do not “sing” it is not the real deal but we hope it creates some excitement for the neighbours who might be wondering why we are flying kites on Easter Sunday, but try as we may, it’s not the real thing, to experience that you have to be in Guyana, so my friends Mara, Gregory, Adam, Errol and Joey, have a blessed Easter and have some sprits for me.
Happy Easter all.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: [email protected]

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