WHO CAN DENY that the Christmas season is probably one of the most special times of the year? It is celebrated globally and although it means different things for different people, one thing is clear – there is something special about Christmas.
At the ripe old age of 32 and having spent an enormous amount of time living on this earth, I have observed two things about Christmas.
1. Even if we are selfish throughout the year, there is a “soft spot” within us that emerges at this time and we have a genuine desire to give someone something.
2. Christmas Day seems to be the most peaceful, quiet and still day of the year; outside just feels, smells and sounds different.
The Christmas I knew as a child is quickly disappearing. In a very short time, aspects of my Barbadian Christmas culture are but a mere memory. I have narrowed down the reason to “modernisation, globalisation and technological advancements”.
We can easily observe the vast benefits these three have presented but, unfortunately, they have also resulted in some loss of national cultural identity.
The neighbourhood shop is close to extinction and following are unique aspects of community spirit and culture, which were attributed to the socialising that occurred there.
As a child I hardly ever went to a supermarket. At Christmas time, we were sent to the shop to collect cases of drinks and on Christmas evening we would congregate there and talk, eat and play games. With the emergence and expansion of supermarkets and wholesale outlets, most drinks and groceries are now purchased at these.
The history of Barbados is honestly foreign to me, but I am now on a journey to correct that. Since the Christmas I knew has so quickly disappeared, I started to wonder what aspects of the Barbadian Christmas before my time have also disappeared.
I was able to get a copy of the book Barbados – Customs To Treasure (Early Gems Of Bajan Creativity) by Glyne Murray and let me tell yuh, I was intrigued, amazed and completely blown away by the number of customs unique to Barbados that are now gone. Pages 172 to 178 highlight some of what occurred at Christmas time.
Mr Murray shared about “the widespread practice of people spreading quantities of sand and marl around their houses to artificially create on a tropical island, the snow and white Christmas effect”.
I learnt for the first time that Bajans made their own Christmas trees using “sections of locally found shrubbery, gave them a conical shape and decorated them with Christmas paraphernalia”.
Additionally, they were some who made Christmas trees “from rope fibre that was dyed green and twisted into wire branches that were then screwed into the green painted trunk of the tree”.
The author made mention of “the gentle art of scrubbing”, which he referenced from The Barbados Book, written by Louis Lynch. Most of us would attribute scrubbing to cleaning the house at Christmas but its meaning is far from that.
Mr Lynch defined it as “the musical activities of those bands of itinerant minstrels who, with more enthusiasm than skill, were wont to go from house to house offering their vocal instrumental wares freely”. One of their pieces was a Bajan version to a traditional song:
Hark the herald angels sing
Open de larduh and gie we sumting
Peas on earth and murrcy mile
Two rums for a man and one for a chile.
There was also mention of a book, which gives more detail into “scrubbing and scrubbers” called A-Z Of Barbados Heritage, written by Sir Henry Fraser along with three others; I intend to get a copy.
There have to be a plethora of Bajan traditions my generation and those after are unaware of and becoming extinct. I would love to see some of these things and even experience them, but it seems we are fine with our history and culture quickly being forgotten. It makes me wonder why some of these local books aren’t included in the booklist for our history students.
Minister Stephen Lashley was correct when he said “our cultural heritage is the way to go”. It isn’t everything we should preserve, but those positive traditions and practices we should appreciate and cherish as they make us unique and help shape our cultural identity.
• Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth Youth Ambassador. Email [email protected].
