The road make to walk on carnival day
And I don’t like to talk, but I’ve got to say …
Lord Kitchener, “The Road” (1963)
The carnival season ended last Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday, otherwise called Mardi Gras) and the contrasting period of Lent started on Wednesday (Ash Wednesday). Even for the non-Christians those observances have meaning because of the powerful, popular influence of both carnival and Easter – the climax of Lent. Those traditions are not so distinctly marked in Guyana, which does not really have a carnival season, but it has been the season of Mashramani and the celebration of Republicanism – popular traditions known to all.
