Celebrating Christmas with Guyana in mind Three overseas-based Guyanese share their stories

Dec 25, 2019 News

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By Rehanna Ramsay

Have you ever wondered what it would be like spending Christmas in a foreign land? Most Guyanese express nostalgia this time of year. They yearn for the pepper pot, black cake, mauby, sorrel, ginger beer and other features unique to a Guyanese Christmas.

Kaieteur News caught up with three Guyanese living abroad, who shared a glimpse of how they celebrate the holiday with Guyana in mind.

 

CHRISTMAS IN THE U.S.

Dimple Willabus of Brooklyn, New York, says that “throughout my childhood, Christmas has been the highlight of each year because of how special my parents made it”. Willabus, is a Guyanese-American wife and mother of three.
She reflected on

Christmas in her homeland.
“Growing up in Guyana my parents would use an old sardine can and nail it to the back of one of the doors in the house and save money throughout the year.
My dad would take down the sardine can in mid-December and give my mom that extra money to purchase gifts for us. As children, we would mark off the days on the calendar until Christmas. My mom made all of our window curtains and matching bed sheets each year. We would clean the house and my mom would decorate our living room, but we were not allowed to dwell in that space until Christmas Day.
My mom would soak fruits for fruit and black cakes from about two months in advance. She baked about six different cakes the night

before Christmas, since we always entertained visitors.”
“When I came to America, I never thought I could capture my Guyanese traditions and share them with my children. However, since my husband is also from Guyana, it made life much easier. I would bake homemade bread with my two daughters on Christmas Eve. We usually bake several cakes. Of course Christmas is not complete without our ginger beer and sorrel. My children all love our Guyanese pepper pot and bread on Christmas morning.
Willabus noted that “regardless of how much effort we put into celebrating Christmas our Guyanese way, there is no replacement for a true Guyana Christmas that is celebrated in Guyana”.
“My husband and I usually share our experiences with our children about how great this time of the year was. We always emphasize that Christmas is celebrated in Guyana by all religions. My dad is a Hindu, but he also celebrated Christmas with us.
My older daughter, Chantelle, is married and has moved on with her life. This year, we will be having our traditional brunch at her home for the first time. I can safely say that we have done a good job passing on our Guyanese traditions to our children.”

 

CHRISTMAS IN CHINA

Kayshell M. Jennings is an aspiring doctor who has been studying in Beijing, China for five years. She says the Christmas season makes her nostalgic each passing year.

“Let me start by saying there is no Christmas like a Guyanese Christmas. That’s why being 9,370 miles away, in a country where Christmas isn’t celebrated, brings on the nostalgia one thousand-fold. It’s been five years and I believe I’ve just learnt to cope; different is difficult.”
The medical student told Kaieteur News that Christmas in China has been on a spectrum. “From eating cup noodles with international friends on Christmas eve to lavish annual Christmas dinners with the church community singing carols of praise or a cordial invite to the Guyana Embassy in Beijing, where all the Guyanese sweets and treats open the taste buds that have been lying dormant. They are awakened by pepper pot, chicken foot souse, some mauby and a good El Dorado, in the right proportions, of course, to bring a feeling of home.”
She noted that “Guyanese are a resilient people, and so we adapt”.
“I’ve learned in the times of plenty to relax and enjoy, and in times of little to be grateful, because you see, Jesus was born in a manger with grass and animal poop. Regardless of the situation, spending Christmas away from home makes you appreciate home, even the mundane or seemingly torturous task of cleaning cutlery and table ware that no one uses the entire year, because in the end there is a feast with family.”
She said that the experiences bring things into perspective and add a little bit more meaning.
“So even though, I and many of my colleagues may have examinations or regular work days during the Christmas season, you grasp onto more true meaning of the season: The Birth of Jesus, love and spreading cheer, whatever the dinner spread looks like.
Christmas is in the heart. I’d still prefer to eat pepper pot and black cake any day. I’m truly looking forward to spending Christmas at home in the future.
Season greetings to all Guyanese at home and abroad, was Kayshell’s final assertion .

 

 

CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY

As anyone would imagine Christmas in Europe is celebrated in a way that is quite different from Christmas in this part of the world.

Ashma John, a Guyanese based in Bremen, Germany, gives us a glimpse of the festivity in the Western European country. She noted that among the common features of Christmas in Germany is the Christmas market. It‘s market spaces are opened during the run-up to Christmas.
According to John, the town squares all over Germany are filled with festively decorated huts selling hand-crafted goods and delicious street food which consists of mostly sausage.
“Sausage is a big part of German cuisine, so there’s a lot of that, and there‘s Glühwein, a drink which is traditionally served at stalls at Christmas markets across Germany.”
She emphasized however that there is no late shopping there. All the Christmas shopping must be done early.
“We do our shopping here early, because by midday Christmas Eve all the shops are closed,” said John, whose home is located just about an hour away at Hamburg, a major port city in northern Germany.
She noted too that Christmas markets are a common feature in major cities across Europe.
“For instance in Paris at Christmas time, it’s basically the Nutella-filled crepes sold by vendors in Christmas markets.”
John says nonetheless she and her husband, Alex, are not too consumed by the European

customs.
“I still do my Christmas the traditional Guyanese way. I clean and rearrange like most Guyanese do at Christmas. My husband actually likes Caribbean food. He likes the spices, so I cook mostly Guyanese food.”
John noted however that key ingredients for Christmas delicacies such as pepper pot are not readily available in Germany.
We get most of the stuff here, but key ingredients like cassareep have to be sourced directly from Guyana. So whenever my friends from Guyana visit me in Germany, they bring stuff like cassareep and achar. “I had pepper pot last year, because a friend bought me some cassareep from Guyana,” John disclosed.
The Germany-based Guyanese said she is constantly looking for ingredients which make her cooking feel most like home.
“When I shop, I keep looking for things that are essential to cooking meals, Guyanese styles. We find most of the stuff we need.”
She added, “But it is not always that way, because one time I tried to get the ingredients to make cook-up rice for New Year’s Eve, but I could not get the salt beef and tripe. I remember one time my husband found the Danish cookies in the tin that Guyanese love, and brought it home.
And recently I went to Zanzibar, Tanzania and I found split peas, so I made pholourie,” she added.
John said that in addition to having a Guyanese-style Christmas, she and her husband have started a holiday tradition of their own.
“We have started travelling and breaking the New Year in a new city or location that we love.”

 

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