Looking Back….. Christmas Anguilla Style

based on excerpts from Anguilla Life, Vol 1, No.3, 1988– interview with Dr M. Linda Banks)

Anguilla Life: When you think about “Christmas Anguilla Style” what really comes to mind?

Linda Banks: If you’d asked me that same question twenty-five years ago I would have had a lot to tell you about. I would have first told you though, that underlying everything was a sense of sharing. It seems as if everybody shared in celebrating Christmas-friends, families and neighbours. In fact, it seemed as if the whole island enjoyed Christmas together. There was no radio station, no television station and very few cars, but somehow, the island was united from Island Harbour to West End…

Groups of serenaders would tramp around from house to house, beginning several weeks before Christmas and going all the way to five o’clock Christmas morning…

People would hunt through the bushes on Christmas Eve to find a Christmas tree – what we call locally a “Five-Finger” tree, shape it and stand it in a bucket of sand and stone…

Then there were the Christmas Sports, masqueraders, the clowns, the mocka jumbies and the fellows who spread the latest gossip through what they called “neager business” – men with blackened faces, dirty clothes and a Bible reciting the latest scandals with the names of the characters changed…

Christmas was a holy time and one of the two times of the year that everyone made sure to go to Church, (Easter being the other). Everyone shared in celebrating the birth of the Christ Child… There weren’t many gifts to choose from nor a lot of money going around, but generally children and adults gave and accepted gifts gladly in the true spirit of Christmas.

Anguilla Life: Have we still carried on those traditions or have we replaced them? What about the caroling-the serenading?

Linda Banks: Well, that still exists but in a very limited degree and in some groups the emphasis seems to have shifted more towards money making than to sharing.

Anguilla Life: What about the traditional Anguillian Five-Finger tree?

Linda Banks: Well, I believe that fresh newly cut smell has been replaced by the smell of imported pines or worse yet by the non-smell of artificial trees.

Anguilla Life: What about the Christmas Sports?

Linda Banks: I can’t say that I’ve seen any of the traditional masqueraders, clowns or mocko jumbies lately…

Anguilla Life: What about Church?
Linda Banks: Well, it seems that families are spending less time celebrating the real reason for Christmas by going to their church services. Younger people, in particular, are noticeably absent. All-night dances and partying have been substituted for worship.

Anguilla Life: What about the sharing of food and gifts?

Linda Banks: Unfortunately with our development people now think more about the value of gifts. Children want all the toys they see on TV and in the stores. The mystique of Santa has lost its intrigue and people in general give less freely and less unconditionally. At the hospital gift giving continues for the residents of the Old Folks Home so there is still the sharing of Christmas joy as well as a Christmas morning service.

Anguilla Life: Is there anything we can do to recapture some of the unique qualities of Christmas Anguilla Style?

Linda Banks: Of course, there is. Begin in your home. Make Christmas a family experience of sharing… If somebody is needy in the community give them a gift or share a meal with them. Don’t leave worship out of your celebrations. If you or someone you know is a talented stilt dancer or masquerader, bring this talent into the open. Let’s help to keep Christmas that special time of sharing that it has traditionally been and have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS – ANGUILLA STYLE!

Compliments from Library Lingo – Volume 3, Issue 2 – December 2009