Guyana Where and What 2023-2024 for website_compressed

Festivals in Guyana
beer. A few nights before Christmas,
leading up to the holiday, the old
and even the young folks move from
house to house singing carols. There
is a famous verse in Guyana that plays
on the radio ‘Christmas comes once
a year, and every man must have
his share, only poor Willy in the jail,
drinking sour ginger beer.’
During this time the men folk indulge
in a lot of drinking and eating, the
women cook and clean, parents take
the children to see ‘Santa Clause’ at
the department stores. There are also
a lot of parties and dances during
this season. Churches hold services
that depict the reason for the season.
And it does not matter who you are
or what religion you might belong to,
this season is celebrated by all.
BOXING DAY
In Guyana St. Stephen’s day is known
as Boxing Day which is a national
holiday. St Stephen was a Christian
martyr who was stoned to death. On
this day his death is remembered
by taking part in all forms of rough
sports or games. It is customary or
was a custom to take box presents to
relatives and friends. But Guyanese
celebrate this day by going to parties,
picnics, visiting friends, among many
other social events.
ARRIVAL DAY
Despite the recruitment of West
Indian, African and Portuguese and
other European labourers, this did
not help very much to ease the labour
shortage. After the West Indian islands
placed restrictions on emigration,
the sugar planters in Guyana began
to look further afield to obtain a
large labour force. One of them, John
Gladstone, the father of the British
statesman, applied for permission
from the Secretary of State for the
Colonies to recruit Indians to serve
in Guyana for a five-year period of
indenture. Gladstone himself owned
3 sugar plantations on the East Coast
and in West Demerara.
By this time Indians were being taken
to Mauritius to work on the sugar
plantations and were proving to be
very productive. Gladstone’s request
was granted and he, Davidson, Barclay
and Company, Andrew Colville,
John and Henry Moss, all owners of
sugar plantations in Guyana, made
arrangements to recruit 414 Indians.
Of these 150 were “hill coolies” from
Chota Nagpur, and the remainder
were from Burdwan and Bancoorah
near to Calcutta. (The word “coolie”,
a corruption of the Tamil word “kuli”,
referred to a porter or labourer).
The 2 ships, Whitby and Hesperus
were chartered and sailed from
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