Yes there HAS been a worry about certa
in categories of criminal activity recently. And it is because Guyana’s population is relatively small compared to TRINIDAD, BRAZIL, JAMAICA, COLOMBIA, BRITAIN, THE BRONX, CANADA OR THE CAROLANDS – that people notice the crime rate in Guyana and NOT in those other destinations mentioned above. Sure, one must consider personal security but are you really safe in New York? In Florida? In Port-of-Spain, Acapulco or Toronto? In your own home? Don’t ever bet on it! Hope that it is as it should be!
So invest some time and cash to go to Guyana. Christmas, originally and still a Christian Festival to commemorate the Birth of the Christ Child, is now a more-than-twelve-day Season of Praise, Goodwill and Guyanese merriment. Embraced by the country’s Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Bahai’s, Rastafarian, Chinese, Amerindian (Native) Peoples – EVERYBODY!
Are you Roman Catholic? – then come to the “Guyanese” NOVENAS – still emphasizing the Religious Reason for the Season. But enjoy the Season’s foods from the various peoples of Guyana – pepperpot, garlic pork, fruit cakes, wines, ginger beer, “tropical-voiced” carol singing and new Christmas gospel songs; steelband and masquerade. Yes come, go to a Guyanese Christmas from, say, December 15 to January 06.
What about the MASHRAMNI in February 2011?
What’s it all about? Today, the festival climaxes with the FLOAT PARADE AND COSTUME BANDS COMPETITION around the quaint capital Georgetown. Floats share messages of advice, commerce, history and hoped-for harmony in songs, sound, designs and dance. The life-blood of any carnival is MUSIC. Guyana’s Mash serves shanto, calypso, steel-band, soca and that increasingly-popular musical condiment – CHUTNEY.
Mashramani Monarchs – male and female – reign on Mash Nite, before the actual Republic Day (23rd February) bacchanal. So too do the Children’s Costume Mash Competition and the Masquerade. It has been claimed that Guyana’s brand of Masquerade tends to be different. Catch the masqueraders at Mashramani and you’ll be in awe at the rustic, rhythmic choreography of the colourful flouncers who leave you with some meaningful, ribald verse in dialect. After they have deftly scooped up money from the ground. And characters such as LONG LADY AND MAD BULL make Guyanese masquerades tell interesting tales against the musical background provided by fife, kittle and boom.
“Hear dem coming down the street
The Masquerade band wid music sweet
Drum and kittle beating clear
The flute like honey to the ear”
Before all this, you could have participated in the Chutney Contest, the Mash Nites, Masquerade Competition and Youth Costume Parades, anywhere in Guyana.
So make plans to be in Guyana for February too. You’ll have the privilege and pleasure of participating in a diverse cultural mosaic – with roots Amerindian, African, Indian – where you yourself will feel the irresistible urge to “walk-and-wine,” to tramp, to flounce or dance as a South American/Caribbean people continue to fuse their creativity-their very own future.
What better time to contemplate Professor Rex Nettleford’s and Errol Hill’s thoughts on carnival: “Masqueraders use masks to disguise, music to affirm and dance to celebrate;” all this in “a synthesis of fusion of folk-forms and art form, between native and alien cultures and traditions.”
And Canada’s CARIBANA now vies with other Caribbean-oriented Carnivals elsewhere.
From the cerebral to the celebratory, Guyana’s Mashramani captures the continental and the Caribbean spirit of pure joy and eternal hope.
Your invitation to an El Dorado of national thanksgiving and celebration is always open. Destination Guyana! In December and/or February!
************
You must be logged in to post a comment.