This is the last weekend before Christmas and end of year festivities, and Indo Caribbean New Yorkers are gearing up for the season, gripped with holiday fever, shopping in earnest for gifts and food (drink) items for preparation of special holiday meals. Christmas and the related end of year season is the most celebrated of all festivals. An aura of excitement is in the air in Guyanese and Trinidadian residential and commercial neighbourhoods (Richmond hill, Jamaica, Ozone, Queens Village, Flatbush, etc.). The plowable snow on the ground and bitter cold temperature have not deterred people from going out to do shopping to celebrate Christmas and the season.
Guyanese Americans, as well as Trini counterparts including their American born and grandchildren as well as great grands continue to celebrate the season with the traditions as accustomed with in Guyana. They are out of Guyana in the diaspora but Guyana remains in their thinking, way of life, and cultural practices, including worshipping, entertainment, music, and food habits. The early Guyanese pioneers in America have transplanted many practices and traditions in their new adapted including those associated with Christmas liking making cake (black cake included).
Everyone, regardless of ethnicity and faith, take in the beauty of the season and engage in one kind of celebration or another. Homes are remodeled and decorated on the exterior with fancy electronic lights. Ditto the yards! The Guyanese neighborhoods are brilliantly lit up with a variety of colors. There is competition for best lit homes.
During the season as they do in Guyana or Trinidad, Indo Caribbeans acquire new clothing, special entertainment equipment, and prepare Guyanese meals (curried dishes, pepper pot, pachaoni, cake, pastries, bread, etc.). There was a lot of excitement in baking; children join in the preparation. Families prepare mauby, sorrel, ginger beer, eggnog (coog), all popular with the diaspora including those born in USA. Their American friends also like those drinks and Guyanese cuisine.
Christmas is a time for family get-together. Guyanese consume a lot of freshly killed animals (mutton, goat, chicken, duck, etc.) although more and more Indians are turning to vegetarian diets for health reasons. There are animal farms in the city catering to West Indians and Caribbean people. Halal meat shops and animal farms do well this season as do roti (dhal puri) shops; a lot of bara, phulourie, and pastries are consumed.
Shopping areas patronized by Guyanese and other West Indians drew large crowds over the last couple weeks as people shopped for gifts, decorations, drinks and food items. There is gifting especially to children to create joy for family members. As in Guyana, Christmas carols and related songs are very popular – (calypso, reggae, chatney and locals, Bollywood) at home and in shops.
The end of the year season is also a time for parties at businesses owned by Indo Caribbeans or where large numbers of them are employed. Several Mandirs also held year-end holiday concerts last weekend. The Indo-Caribbean Federation hosted a dinner for its executives and supporters in Ozone Park. Arya Samaj USA held a dinner last Saturday evening in Richmond Hill. Other organizations held luncheons for seniors in Little Guyana, a practice going back many years.
The Christmas holiday will be at fever from this weekend as many businesses have closed for the holidays, until after New Years. Schools shuttered only from last Friday.