A Tropical Christmas

Centuries ago, humans created holidays to strengthen the bond between themselves and family members. Holidays can serve to form a connection to your past by evoking memories or a bond across an entire society. Every culture has its different ways of celebrating Christmas. In Guyana, Christmas is like exotic birds in a jungle. The jungle holds the homes to numerous colorful, bold, small, big and lovely birds, which creates a diffusion of culture. Guyana is a Caribbean country that lies in South America. The name came from an American-Indians word meaning "the land of many waters." In all holidays, which includes African, East Indians, American-Indians, Chinese and Europeans. Since people don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Guyana, Christmas is the holiday when all of the food and presents are distribute all over.

Christmas in Guyana is quite diverse. My grandmother passed on many traditions to me. One tradition that my grandmother bested upon me was to acknowledge everyone cooking on Christmas. On Christmas day, my grandmother would get up the morning and cook some of the delicious, mouth-watering food that would bless my taste buds. She and my family would have dishes of food and go to other neighbors' houses to share. Because Guyana has so many ethnicities the food is diverse. Tasting all of the spices of the neighbor, which is mostly British, French and Portuguese, the dishes bring more connection within different families.

Why is food an important factor in Guyanese holidays? In Guyana, different food are made for Christmas in different families because of our diverse country. In most of these cultures, spices, hot pepper, and a lot of seasoning are used for food. Curry, roti, dulpri, cook-up rice, pepperpot, and cassava, which are the traditional food of Guyana, goes through a lenghty preparations. Cooks like my grandmother would learn from her mother or other cooks in the family. Metemgie Stew is one of my grandmother favorite thick soups to make. With some many culture, she also knows how to make chow mien and fluffy dumplings (Chinese dishes) which is eaten with fried fish or chicken. Bread making that includes pastries such as cheese roll, pine tart, and patties. From hundreds of dishes to choose from, this is why I love my culture. Fresh fish and seafood are a primary part of the food of the rural areas and along the coast. The crab soups, soups with okra and a popular dessert known as salara are the many reasons my family, my culture is rich. Rich with love and food.

Today, Christmas is still the same. Plenty of food, family and friend that fulls up my heart. The tradition that is represent in Guyana is to bring a dishes of your own heritage. Its not one important dish like turkey on thanksgiving nor candy on Halloween, but a togetherness of everything. This is the reason why, by the beginning of the new year, i had gain 10 pounds.