Once upon a time in the land of “Jam dung” and long before the dawn of the new millennium, there was a Christmas culture of an irie nature.
Imagine, if you will, Santa Claus trapped in a mango tree and his occasional kisses with a certain relative under an ackee tree. He never seemed to have gifts…. which is whole other story altogether. But in the weeks leading up to the grand celebration, you would see relatives and friends engaging with their pixies. What is a pixie? Good question! This ‘pixie affair’ is what we now call secret Santa. The idea is for a group of people to treat each other to Christmas gifts. Each person is secretly paired with another and for the weeks leading up to Christmas day they secretly exchange small tokens and pass on kind gestures, all in the spirit of Christmas. Usually, on Christmas Day, your pixie is revealed and you receive your final gift which usually fulfils your Christmas wish.
Pixie exchanges are often fun but that’s not all that happened in irie Jam Dung. Travelling to the country to visit relatives and having an annual family reunion Christmas feast, Grand Market on Christmas Eve and Junkanoo parade on Christmas morning were all a part of the entertainment and festivities at this special time of year. It seems as though there was always something to do and the people of the irie land enjoyed doing it together. Events such as Grand Market saw everybody and their child dressed in their best on the streets of a major city taking advantage of their final shopping opportunity before Christmas Day. There would be a wide variety of products at very low prices to choose from – whether from sidewalk vendors or stores that stay open well after midnight – shopping was definitely a big deal! Yet, as much as people looked forward to the last minute deals, it was more about the community spirit of being out and about than it was the shopping.
There were also the occasional parties among the festivities. What is Christmas in Jam Dung without dancing and drinking? Yes, Mr J.W. and his nephew with the help of sound systems and home stereos helped to deliver a very Merry Christmas. And after much partying on Christmas Eve, it didn’t matter what time in the wee hours of the morning you got home because everybody knew that church was the place to be on Christmas morning drunk, tired or half asleep. The merriment on Christmas Day was not complete without a family gathering, so right after church, families would gather and feast on extensive menus including ham, pot roast beef, gungo rice and peas, potato salad, baked chicken, fried fish and sorrel with pimento and rum. The wine-drenched fruit cake was not to be excluded!
To Read More: Purchase your copy of Volume 9 #5 November-December 2017
