CHRISTMAS IN THE TIME OF PROROGATION
December 13, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source - Kaieteur News
I went into a city store this past week and saw so many Christmas trees that I thought I was in the rainforests of Guyana. There are many Christmas trees around to remind us of the time when each home had to have one for the holidays.
It was not always so though. Not long after Independence Christmas trees were placed on the list of banned items.
Many people felt that this ban constituted an assault on Christmas by the Forbes Burnham administration. Burnham’s mouthpieces justified the ban as an attempt to liberate us from the snow-filled Christmas mentality. They argued that Guyana did not have snow and therefore Christmas trees were unsuited to Guyana.
Both sides were wrong. The banning of Christmas trees had nothing to do with reversing cultural indoctrination. The ban also had nothing to do with destroying Christmas. There was no one who enjoyed Christmas more than Forbes. He loved good liquor, big-shot company and Christmas socials. These were always aplenty during Christmas time. Burnham was smitten with British royalty and its customs. He would never been interested in destroying Christmas.
The real reason for the ban on Christmas trees was that there was an acute shortage of foreign exchange. In light of this shortage, Burnham felt that importing such trees was a luxury that Guyana could not afford and so he banned the importation of Christmas trees.
Santa Claus was nearly also made extinct. The disappearance of Santa Claus from the department stores such as Forgarty’s and Bettencourt’s had nothing to do with these stores being afraid of promoting a white- bearded Santa Claus. It had to do also with the shortage of foreign exchange.
There was a time in this country when the department stores in Guyana were flooded with imported toys. All kinds of toys were brought in. It was a treat for children to visit these stores and especially to go to Santa Claus knowing that for the right price you could receive a good toy when you left. That privilege began to be rolled back when the economy began to buckle.
Bankruptcy was not slow in coming to the economy under the PNC. Not long after Guyana declared itself a Co-operative Republic things began to slide. The squander mania and wastage that took place under the PNC meant that there came a time under Burnham when the department stories had to apply to get a licence to import toys. Given the shortage of foreign exchange, these stories could not get any nor could they obtain an import licence for such toys. As such, inventories of toys ran low. The result is that Santa Claus disappeared from the department stores.
He disappeared for so long that when he did reappear in these stories it was not to give out toys but for a photo-opportunity. Santa came not with a sack of toys but with a Kodak camera to take out a picture of you sitting on his lap. No wonder so many of the pictures people have of Santa Claus is of their children screaming at the sight of Santa. It is not that the children were afraid of Santa. They wanted to know where his bag of toys was.
Burnham had his own answer to the shortage of toys. He promoted buy local. Guyana Stores which was nationalized from Bookers began to sell wooden toys. There was a big promotion of this. Many people bought the wooden toys for their children because that was all that was available. But others found a way of asking relatives overseas to send in foreign toys for them.
People always found a way to adapt to the crisis. This is what made Christmas so wonderful. People found ways to make Christmas a nice time. People did not have everything but they made do with what they had.
What saved Christmas from the PNC was the fact that people never forgot the old time way of celebrating Christmas. The pain of not being able to give your child the toy that he or she deserved was difficult for any parent. But people stuck to the customs of the holidays. They cooked the traditional Christmas meals, they painted their homes, varnished the furniture and put up their fairy lights. They made do with the wooden toys and they paid the increased prices for eggs just to ensure that around Christmas time cake was in the oven baking. It was hard times but by sticking to the traditions, they made Christmas a very nice time, regardless of the circumstances.
Burnham did not do like what the PPP is doing these days. He did not offer any Christmas bonus as back pay. He barely had money to keep the country going much less to give as back pay for workers. Instead of back pay persons had back pain from all the buckets of water they had to fetch just to clean their homes for the holidays. But that too was part of the tradition of Christmas. The home had to be spanking clean even if some old used window blinds was going to be recycled for the holidays.
Today there is so much available. People have unlimited choices. Yet they are unhappy. They have grown up in better times and the customs that were associated with the old-time Christmas have been lost on them. They need to return to those customs if they are to enjoy Christmas they way it is supposed to be enjoyed.
Source - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....time-of-prorogation/
