Next February, Guyana will celebrate another golden jubilee. February 23, 1970 was the day this country became a republic; February 23, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of that day and of the national festival of Mashramani.
Mashramani is the highlight of republic celebrations and has for the five decades given the nation’s Republic Day its impact, its identity, its popularity and cultural mark. This has been so to the point where it is known and celebrated as Mashramani season and the revelry of the actual festival dominates the national consciousness at the expense of any significant awareness of republicanism. It is not popularly remembered that it is a political event that is really being celebrated. Much of the population would be unaware of this and of the meaning of the nation’s status as a republic.
