Christmas in slavery times CHRISTMAS has long been one of the most celebrated seasons in the Guyana calendar. Guyana Chronicle December 31, 2000 It began to be observed on a regular basis when the Dutch immigrants made permanent settlements here - firstly in Essequibo about 1616, then in Berbice in 1627, and much later, in 1746, in Demerara. The celebration continued after the British, in 1796, occupied Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara which they unified into a single colony, called British Guiana, in 1831. At the time of unification in 1831, the largest ethnic group in the country was the Africans. A small proportion of them were free, while the overwhelming majority were slaves who provided most of the labour for the Whites' sugar, coffee and cotton plantations. Slaves had been brought from Africa to Guyana since the early decades of the 17th century and the institution of slavery continued until full emancipation was granted on August 01, 1838. Christmas was a popular season during the slavery era for most of the population with the notable exception of the Amerindians who lived for the most part in scattered communities in the hinterland. One of its striking features then was that although it was a Christian festival celebrating the birth of Christ, for a long while it had very little religious emphasis. Unlike today when there are numerous churches which hold special religious meetings on Christmas Eve or early on Christmas Day, there were no such services at Christmas in the few churches which existed in Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara in the 17th and 18th centuries. The notable absence of significant religious observances in Guyana continued until 1810 when the London Missionary Society (L.M.S), a British Protestant body, sent a clergyman, John Wray, to inaugurate a mission particularly for slaves at Plantation Le Ressouvenir, a large cotton estate on the East Coast of Demerara. Within a few months, Wray erected a church building, named Bethel Chapel, capable of seating about 600 persons. Thereafter one of the highlights there at Christmas was the holding of well-attended services on Christmas day and on the following day, now called Boxing Day. These meetings were distinguished not only by a focus on the historicity, significance and purpose of the birth of Christ, but also by the baptism and marriage of slave converts. Typical of these Christmas services was the one described by John Smith, the minister of Bethel Chapel, in his journal entry for December 26, 1822. He observed: "Yesterday evening, a great many people came from various parts with a view of attending chapel today. Till past 9 o'clock I was engaged in finally examining candidates for baptism, and again this morning till near 12. The congregation would have filled the chapel had the latter been twice as large. Yesterday, my text was Haggai 2:6:7 today Matthew 2:10-11. Married five couples and baptised 74 individuals including 20 children. A comfortable Xmas to me". This practice of holding special religious meetings at Christmas was eventually adopted by all churches in Guyana. In short, until the arrival of L.M.S missionaries in 1908, Christmas here was for much of the population primarily "a period of festivity", according to George Pinckard, a medical doctor who spent 13 months in Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice in 1796 and 1796 as a physician attached to the British military forces. Christmas was welcomed by the Whites and the Blacks, though not for identical reasons. White plantation proprietors and management personnel valued Christmas as a break from the challenge of seeking to make their plantations financially viable and to control and extort labour from unwilling slaves. They welcomed the opportunity to meet for fun and communion with Whites from other plantations and at a later stage, the town. Their festivity at Christmas consisted primarily of indoor parties and special lunches and dinners. As Pinckard observed, "on the subject of Christmas, I should tell you that it is not less a period of festivity here, than in England. The planters make parties, and the merry feasting of the season goes round". Admittedly, the mirth was often accompanied by at least a measure of apprehension, for plantation authorities knew from the history of slavery elsewhere in the Caribbean that slaves sometimes exploited the distraction of Whites at Christmas to stage rebellions. Rebellions were the form of slave resistance most feared by Whites. Much to the relief of the slaveholders, however, Guyana never experienced a major slave uprising at Christmas. Rather slaves here valued the season as a welcome break from their routine of hard labour and as a time for special jollification. The enjoyed the privilege of festivity which masters gave them. Their main festivity was open-air dances which were held on the plantations in the evening of Christmas Day. On that day, they were allowed the unusual liberty of leaving the plantations where they resided to attend dances on other estates without White supervision or written permission from their masters. At these dances, they had the joy of meeting relatives, lovers, friends and shipmates with whom they had endured the terrible Atlantic crossing from their original homeland in West Africa to Guyana. The enjoyable occasion on Christmas Day 1796 was vividly described by Pinckard thus: "In the evening, their loved African dance crowned the holyday. Parties of them go from different plantations to spend the mirthful hours with their more particular friends or acquaintances of the neighbouring estates, and it is a happy meeting of friends, lovers and fellow-passengers, who made the voyage together from their native land. The whole country exhibits one moving scene of dancing gaiety. Cheerful crowds are met in every quarter". For this Christmas festivity, the slaves, who normally were scantily and poorly clad, devoted special attention to their person and attire, dressing most attractively and adorning their heads in peculiar ways. As Pinckard observed about Christmas Day 1796, "Cheerful crowds are met in every quarter, dressed out in all the gaudy trappings they can collect, with their hair cut and fashioned into multitudes of whimsical shapes, representing various figures of helmets, wigs, crowns and the like and decorated with a profusion of beads, bits of riband, and other tinsel ornaments". In addition to the opportunity for merriment, slaves welcomed Christmas because it was time of year when they received some additional special allowances of clothing, food and drink from their masters. It was common for masters to give slaves alcohol and meat for consumption at lunch-time or dinner-time on Christmas day. According to Pinckard, "Christmas...is a holyday to the slaves who usually receive some indulgences of food, and some present of clothing to augment the happiness of the festival. We have seen new hats distributed among men of a whole gang, and a bit of course canvass for a petticoat given to each of the women, and never were children more delighted with toys than these poor beings were on the joyous occasion of receiving these humble, but to them splendid offerings. Some fresh meat was also served out to them as a high feast for dinner". In short, the festivity among slaves at Christmas was not merely permitted but consciously encouraged by their masters, who hoped that it would make the slaves happy and provide a harmless outlet for the pent-up anger which slaves had because of the severity and injustice of slavery. For slaveholders, this festivity was a subtle, well-contrived means of controlling their slaves and reducing the possibility of rebellion, flight and other forms of slave resistance. Master and the colonial authorities, aware of the slaves' love for their merriment at Christmas, used it as an inducement to slaves for good behaviour or deprived them of it as punishment for undesirable conduct. Thus, on December 16, 1823, Governor Murray and the legislature of Demerara-Essequibo issued a proclamation forbidding slaves on the East Coast of Demerara from having their customary Christmas dances and other festivities. This prohibition was a penalty for the outbreak in the previous August of massive but abortive slave rebellion there. By then, the merriment among slaves was becoming a source of friction within the slave community on the East Coast and between masters and some slaves. Slaves, who had been converted to Christianity as the result of the work of ministers and members of Bethel Chapel, were beginning to refuse to participate any longer in the dances on Christmas day and in the consumption of alcohol. Their abstention angered other slaves and their masters. Soon, the mirth of Christmas day ended and both the Whites and the slaves returned to their normal activities. For slaves, this routine was the drudgery and rigour of work and severe physical brutality. Their masters hoped that the relief provided by the mirth, freedom and allowances of Christmas day would make them submit, however grudgingly, to the harshness and injustice of slavery. There are many similarities between the observance of Christmas in Guyana in the days of slavery and today. The merriment, the special meals, the wearing of new clothes and the consumption of alcohol are common features. But there are also marked differences, especially the absence in slavery times of commercialism, lavish spending, the exchange of gifts, and the decoration of homes, and the lack, until 1808 of significant religious focus. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today