Why “IndeMas” Should Be the Next Big Holiday Season
Independence vS. Christmas, the yearly November conundrum for every Bajan.
What is a Caribbean Christmas without a visit to the Rum Shop?
Independence Vs. Christmas A yearly Conundrum
It’s Christmas!!!!!
Bajans have been waiting with baited, black cake scented breath since the first day of October. As Pastor John Yarde says when outside starts feeling a little colder and the sun starts setting a little earlier. Alas, all this Christmas joy is wrapped up like a frozen farmer’s choice leg ham until after the last day of November; Barbados’ Independence Day.
Before December 1st we hide our love for Christmas trees while tearfully chewing conkies, (we aren’t sad about the conkies mind you, we love those. We just want the trees too). We look sadly at the Christmas lights in the cupboard but alas it’s still not December. Why must it be so? I say no more! Here comes the next big West Indian, Caribbean holiday! And I am calling it IndeMas, a name coined by my good friend Michael Trotman. As the name suggests it's a fusion of Christmas and Independence giving us the best of both worlds; an innovative way to preserve culture and add a few extras in-between (Halloween wink wink)! Cause no one does Christmas like a West Indian. (Just listen to John and Mickey: Christmas is Here!)
The idea of a new holiday may seem strange but in the same way, only some countries celebrate Thanksgiving, Barbados could celebrate IndeMas! All I want for Christmas is you…to not feel guilty for enjoying it during November. You’re not a bad Bajan I promise. In truth, a Caribbean Christmas is a unique affair.
Our regional brethren have been celebrating since late October, but only from December 1st do we in Barbados feel like it’s acceptable to start throwing ourselves into the Christmas cheer (I always side-eye Christmas decorations for sale in November when not a blue or yellow ribbon is anywhere in sight), but then like a magic Christmas story something special happened one year.
Why there is no culture in our Christmas
Before we get to something special let’s just see if we can understand why the culture was left out of our Christmas (unless you’re a tourist and a tuk band visits your hotel every Christmas day). It may seem odd now but there was a time our cultural elements weren’t just reserved for Crop Over or November, they were literally part of everyday community life. Ever wonder why community-based groups like Pinelands Creative Workshop, Israel Lovell Foundation and Haynesville Community Group are the bastions of local folk culture? It was always a community affair. In each you had your merry band of scrubbers; tuk band, minstrels, shaggy bears, and other characters who would come calling and singing from house to house and receive payment for their exploits with a pint of rum. You can still find these community-based entertainers in other islands along with other unique Caribbean Christmas traditions.
However in Barbados after 1966 our year of Independence, my guess is that in an attempt to up the patriotic sentiments the ideas of culture and Christmas drifted further and further apart. Essentially turning the two into next-door neighbours who now barely speak, let alone enter each other’s house. So Bajans are stuck in this conundrum. By choosing St.Andrew’s day, November 30th, to celebrate our start of a “New” life as an Independent nation we essentially put a dent in the old life, aka our Caribbean Christmas traditions. This cultural divide designed to make Independence stand out meant that culture was for November and a more North American type Christmas for December.
Sadly this has made us lose some of the most beautiful moments from a West Indian Christmas like marl spread around the front of each house to create a white Christmas, conkies all the way through to January and a few other repurposed North American and English traditions.
But does it really have to be like this?
Bajan Themed Christmas tree spotted in Sky Small. Spot the Shaggy Bears, Mother Sallies and Stilt Walkers all a twinkle.
The Making of IndeMas: benchmarks
Remember I mentioned the year something special happened?
Twas a year for great joy and celebration all about,
The 50th anniversary of our independence!
They would sing and shout!
The government & commercial companies all turned up with glee
Let’s make a fusion of Christmas and Independence
….and save some decorating money!
Bad poetry aside, it was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of independence when the government and commercial Barbados showed us what could be done. They turned up in fine form with their full decorating budgets. To avoid decorating twice they craftily used the national colours in a decidedly Christmas style. When December 1st rolled around the decorating crews added a few extra lights and colours, and we seamless moved from one season to the next without skipping a beat. For one shinny moment in 2016, these two festive seasons became one!
We don’t realise it, but it has always been the commercial companies and the government (also known as the social partnership) who make the seasons we hold so dear...
How Christmas was won
Now begins the (shortened) tale of Modern Christmas. Our story opens with Christmas being cancelled. Yes, the story of the Christmas we know today started with it being cancelled, because Christmas back in the day was pretty rough:
No presents, no trees,
Just drunken revelries.
No santa, no slays,
just lewd cavorting all day.
No Baby Jesus, No three wise men,
Just cross dressing carollers who can’t remember the last time they said “amen”.
“Men dishonour Christ more in the twelve days of Christmas, than in all the twelve months besides,”
—so despaired Hugh Latimer, chaplain to King Edward VI, in the mid-1500s.
When 1647 rolled around and Oliver Cromwell and his parliament won the civil war in England they vowed to do away with the rowdy decadence of the King! This included Christmas, so this rowdy, raucous, what Moses-saw-when-he-came-down-the-mountain rip-roaring affair was banned. Far from being about children, since no one actually cared about children at the time. It was a drunken 12 day stumble which consisted of bawdy singing, drunken men, a mishmash of European winter traditions and behaviour that would make a mother sally blush.
Like the estranged family members you can never really get rid of, the Christmas spirit never really died. In the 18th Century, the governing powers that be and the merchant companies banded together to repurpose this Christmas energy. A new wholesome Christmas season was born! For peaceful governance “Peace on earth and goodwill to all men” meant the slowly growing anger of industrial workers and house servants to their supposed upper-class masters was put on a seasonal pause, and the gifts of food and drink aka boxing day would hold their anger at bay for another year. For the merchants, it was a “triumph of middle-class values” a feeling that could be bought and sold to one another.
European traditions were refashioned “like Christmas trees from Germany and Christmas boxes from England... St Nicholas, or Santa Claus, whose December name day coincided with the Christmas season, became the holiday’s mascot.” Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St Nicholas”, you know the one that starts: Twas the night before Christmas, first published in 1823, helped popularise his image. The rebrand of Christmas was a national campaign, even newspapers played their part. The New York Herald in 1839 advised “‘Let all avoid taverns and grog shops for a few days,’ Better to focus on ‘the domestic hearth, the virtuous wife, the innocent, smiling, merry-hearted children’”.
However, Christmas alone isn’t the only holiday popularized for a purpose. Hallmark refuses to take any credit for it but the worldwide observance of Valentine’s day is in no small part due to their efforts to sell valentines cards en mass. “If you search on Hallmark’s website hard enough, you can find a few mind-staggering statistics about Valentine’s Day.
Hallmark first started offering Valentine’s Day cards in 1913
Approximately 131 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged, making it the second-largest holiday for greeting cards. Guess which holiday is at #1
According to the National Retail Federation, the average person celebrating Valentine’s Day spent nearly $142
Speaking of Hallmark they’ve also been peddling quite a few other “holidays” as well. “Other alleged “Hallmark holidays” include Grandparents Day, Secretaries Day and even Boss’ Day”.
So if the government can break and remake Christmas, Hallmark can turn Valentine’s into a holiday and Coca-Cola can standardise Santa’s image (this is a pretty interesting read) I don’t see why we can’t create a holiday that allows us to have our black cake and conkies too.
indemas, The holiday your holiday could be like
Let me just put this right here. We keep talking about saving our culture, guys, if you’re smart you don’t need to “save” culture, you need only innovate with culture. Working with the psychology of a people who are heavily influenced by external cultures (read that as our North American Neighbours), IndeMas can easily become the catch-all end of year Holiday event, I mean technically that’s what Europeans did with Christmas. IndeMas would look at what we have already, what we’re influenced by and repackage it in a palatable culturally relevant bundle that can appeal to younger Barbadians and the old stalwarts.
Picture it…
IndeMas season could start from October 31st, solving the Halloween problem. We’re always saying Barbados doesn’t celebrate Halloween but every year we see more and more groups dressing up. Like the 1800s Christmas revamp let’s repurpose this Halloween energy and get in a little history. October 31st the start of Indemas could become a Christmas carol meets Bajan folklore. The ghosts of Christmas past come out to play and you spend the night dressed up as Bajan folk characters. National and community events could be set up to tell the long lost tales of characters like the Hag, Heart Man and Steel Donkey. Combined with the lighting ceremony in Bridgetown this could turn into a fantastical night, coming from the dark into the light. With huge street parades and community parties.
From Old Souls Night, I like that, so we’re keeping that name. From Old Souls Night we start November and enjoy Bajan folk and Christmas classics on the airwaves. The hardest part of decorating for independence is easily accessible decorations. If you really want to show the Independence spirit currently you have to make your blue and yellow decor, whereas Christmas decorations are always easily accessible. Now stores can bring out the blue and yellow Christmas decorations for IndeMas. To further get our communities in the spirit we could have the IndeMas Decorating competition, where you bring out your best in Christmas or cultural blue and yellow... Pssst and don’t forget the marl around the house. Imagine the entire island lit up with blue Christmas lights. In Barbados, we would create a new meaning for a blue blue Christmas.
November 30 to December 1st could take on a whole new meaning marking the start of the second half of the season. Independence day parade leads into the welcoming of Sonny Santa, our own unique Santa Claus who lives on Pelican Island. The loc styling, out in the ground ploughing, muscle sporting, sunglass-wearing Bajan Claus who turns up with the bougie black belly sheep. He brings good health and joy promoting healthy living and farm to table dining. He doesn’t replace north pole Santa but he’s our Santa Claus that looks like us and speaks to our life.
This is where the merchants step in to really make the season. The government events are the skeleton but the stores and promoters create the body of season. With a strong partnership between both, elements like VAT free days and other sales, promotions and special events make the holiday. Leave it to the experience designers (like me!) to create the magic through both government and privately sponsored events
in conclusion
IndeMas is our blank page. Why in the year of Rihanna 2021 can’t we have a holiday that is uniquely ours, serves ours needs and has characters that look like us. If they can repurpose trees from Germany and boxes from England, why can’t we repurpose every holiday and tradition to suit ourselves? If you include the 12 days of Christmas, Indemas would end on Jan 5th meaning a guilt-free cohesive 2 month holiday season. Way more than we have now.
As the good book says the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath. Holidays should be made for the people they serve. The current “we kinda celebrate Independence” into “Thank God it’s Christmas” mess isn’t serving anyone and only makes our relationship with Independence more strained every year. Even in its remake Christmas as a holiday was designed to bring people together, so let’s bring our holiday season together once and for all and return to enjoying a culturally rich time of year.
Merry Christmas and Happy IndeMas!
