In recent years, many Guyanese have been celebrating or acknowledging a number of foreign holidays, like St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving and Halloween.
We have also embraced practices from other countries closer to home, such as J’ouvert from Trinidad and Tobago, which we have integrated into our Mashramani celebrations. There is even talk that we will be having carnival in Guyana sometime next year.
It is often said that Guyanese are ‘foreign minded;’ that many of us appreciate and/or gravitate towards the customs of others more than we do our own. In some instances, even our language is being forsaken. When one listens to the radio, for example, you hear non-Guyanese accents from folks who have never lived overseas, ads done by foreigners, and a focus on foreign celebrity news. There are also those Disk Jockeys (DJs) who seem to believe that they must have a Jamaican accent, maybe because the dancehall music that is largely promoted originated in Jamaica. There are also radio personalities and DJs who do not put on a façade but the others make us question sometimes if we are really listening to Guyanese radio.
