Christmas of yesteryear and today

 by Oscar Ramjeet

 "Dis time na lang time". This is a well known Guyanese term which means that nowadays things are much different than in the past. Well Christmas these days is more commercialized than those of yesterday year - so much so that the birthday of Jesus Christ the Lord - is not celebrated in the manner in which it should be observed. Instead of church services, carol singing, and exchange of little gifts as tokens, the masses indulge in large-scale shopping, lavish illumination of houses, trees, and even the streets, not to mention the numerous parties where alcohol beverages are served in abundance.

It is so different these days that there is a "chain" which is being emailed to friends stating that Christmas has taken such a turn that the person in whose name the celebration is being observed is being kept out because of the heavy drinking, and over indulgence and persons should correctly observe the occasion.

In fact there is now a controversy in the United States where commercial houses are now celebrating holidays. Instead of "Happy Christmas or Merry Christmas, the jingles now say "Happy Holidays" and Christmas trees are now called holiday trees. Very unfortunate indeed.

Pope Benedict XVI at last Sunday’s mass at the Vatican said that "Christmas festivities have been polluted by consumerism" and he suggested that assembling the Nativity scene in the home is an effective way of teaching the faith to the children. He added that "pollution that is in danger of altering its true spirit which is characterized by meditation, sobriety, and by a joy that is not exterior but intimate".

I recall in my day, gifts were not easy to come by as it is nowadays. You only received a single toy, and it was at Christmas and to us it took so long for Xmas to come. At school, the teacher used to make a list of toys requested by each student, and he would tell us that he was going to write Santa Claus and tell him what to bring for each one of us, and ask us to tell our parents what he (the teacher) had requested of Santa. This of course was to alert to our parents so that they could buy the gift.

Unfortunately some of our parents could not have afforded to buy the gift which we requested to our teacher, and as a result our parents were placed in an extremely sad situation, and had to come up with some excuses, some of them admitting that they were the ones who had to make the purchase, did not have the means to do so.

This is the age of television/computer/faxes/emails/cellphones and superficiality and the commercial houses make full use of the television to view their products which quickly catch the eyes of kids who pressure their parents to buy more gifts than they can make use of. The joy of window shopping is no longer there where people used to walk the streets viewing toys and other Christmas "stuff" in the show cases.

I know for a fact where some kids have scores of toys, ranging from talking dolls to electronic trains and Barbie dolls. Speaking about Barbie dolls, I recall last week, a five year old girl telling her grandmother that she wanted a "Barbie" and she must go on the computer and check www.barbiedoll.com and get one for her. What an age we live in and the kids are so...sensitive and extremely smart.

Christmas nowadays is being celebrated differently; the feeling and joy in preparing for Christmas is not there anymore. Weeks before Christmas mothers grandmothers used to prepare fruits for the black cake and, and "set" the ingredients for the "fly" and other exotic drinks as well as sorrel, mauby and ginger beer.

Some people slaughtered pigs, goats, and sheep, and plucked chickens days before the beginning of the season. Nowadays this is not being done because they can go into the supermarket and pick up all what they need for the season including a variety of meats (ham, roast beef, turkey, chicken) cakes in abundance jams, jellies, and the numerous drinks on sale. Of course the quality and taste of 21st century meats and foods do not compare favourably with those of yesteryear.

The masquerade bands are dwindling, there is no Mother Sally, Long Lady, and scratch bands that traverse the streets at Christmas. Even house to house carol-singing has been reduced significantly. Instead people stay indoors and listen to Christmas music electronically - either from the television, radio, tapes and cassettes.  Some even complain that there is no soap opera on television on Xmas Day. Others are stuck to the computer sending messages into “space”, buying on Ebay, looking endlessly to the internet, buying useless stuff and draining their credit cards. A few go to church and observe the old traditions—but it seems as if they are a minority.

Frankly speaking in my view the Christmas celebrations of yesterday year were more joyous and meaningful than nowadays.