Easter : Our Spiritual and Cultural Traditions
BEGINNING TOMORROW, Good Friday, we embark on the second biggest Christian festival in our calendar, Easter. Only Christmas surpasses it in importance, not just in St Vincent and the Grenadines but in countries where Christianity in its various forms, is still the dominant religion.
Easter is a time of rejoicing for Christians in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ after the suffering of Holy Week leading up to the Good Friday crucifixion. Traditionally, Holy Week was observed scrupulously in the Christian world, though in recent times that level of reverence and observance has declined considerably.
It is sad to note that in our modernising efforts aimed at easing the more restrictive practices of the past, we seem to have thrown out the baby with the bath water.The Lenten season followed Carnival and was in direct contrast to it. In our context, abstinence was central.
Unfortunately, the inherent bias and discrimination from colonial society virtually outlawed many of our cultural practices. Thus, for years the song and dance derived from our African origins could not be heard or broadcast during Lent. This had the effect, for example, of stifling the development of calypso as an art form. Not many people today are aware that there was only one day traditionally during Lent when the singing of calypso was tolerated. That was on St. Joseph’s Day, in honour of Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary.
There were positive elements of the practices during Lent, mainly relating to abstinence, prayer and reverence. In addition, in the Caribbean a whole range of cultural traditions and practices evolved during the Lenten season. School children engaged in a number of innovative games, many of which have been forgotten today, and the cultural evolution also encompassed food and diet. Good Friday had its own special fish-based meals and the sale of imported mackerel, smoked herring, salmon, as well as codfish became associated with that Holy Day.
There were also the sporting and cultural activities ushered in by the Easter weekend with kite-flying being especially significant.
This brought in train the development of a range of skills such as the construction of kites locally, as well as our own version of tops made from local wood.
But as our society became more integrated into the global economy many of these skills and cultural practices succumbed to international pressures, including a changed mindset which no longer valued these social past times.
The abstinence which was marked by a virtual ban of fetes and secular celebrations in Lent, also soon fell by the wayside. Now except for church activity,mainly services, you cannot detect that we are in the Lenten season. Loud music and profanities are everywhere among young and old, and many of our local traditions have fallen into abeyance, or worse, have died.
It is heart-warming though that there are still rural communities which heroically struggle to keep our cultural traditions alive. The communities of Rose Hall and Sandy Bay deserve special mention but there are others as well. The pity is that the vast majority of our children and youth grow up oblivious of our rich cultural traditions.
These have helped to build social cohesion in our communities, values which today, are sadly lacking.
As we salute the bearers of our cultural traditions, including private sector entities that over the years, have provided financial support to help keep some of them alive, we also urge the government to pay special attention to our cultural and social development and to provide the Ministry of Culture with the resources necessary to aid in their resuscitation and development.
We acknowledge that this will have its challenges as our population has generally developed different tastes and gravitate towards other kinds of activities. However, it must also be acknowledged that a society shorn of wholesome, community-oriented traditions, is so much the poorer as a result.
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