Christmas and Parang

Christmas long ago was something you smelt in the air. Afro-Trinidadian villagers both young and old created a cognitive and perceptual framework that facilitated a season of family togetherness and camaraderie. Houses had to be thoroughly cleaned; the stones around plants in the yard were whitewashed using carbide; furniture had to be sandpapered and polished; purchased from the Syrian/Lebanese peddler had to be sewn on the hand machine with its long shuttle.

My father, the train engineer, would take my mother’s Christmas shopping list to United Grocers on Frederick Street in Port of Spain. Top of the list was the imported Christmas tree cut from a live American pine tree, which was purchased from the French Creole importer, Grell & Co. in our open gallery, stirred excitement among the villagers.

Another very important item was the Christmas ham which came encased in a tar jacket. After removing the jacket, it was sanitised and boiled in a  cooling it was decorated with cloves from the East Indies islands and India. Christmas beverages were sorrel, ginger beer, Ponche-de-creme, Correia’s cherry brandy, and Fernandes rum. Imported American fruits, such as apples, pears, and grapes were also available at Christmas time, along with Huntly and Palmers crackers, Royal Danish Butter Cookies, assorted biscuits, chocolates, walnuts, Brazil nuts, and almonds.

Christmas was not complete without parang, a popular folk music originating in Venezuela that was brought to Trinidad and Tobago by Venezuelan migrants who were primarily of Amerindian, Spanish, Mestizo, Pardo, and African heritage, something which is strongly parranda, meaning ‘a spree’, and parar meaning ‘to stop’.

I can remember Christmas time in the village from the age of four when it was customary for parang serenaders to pay nocturnal visits to the homes of family and friends, where part of the fun was waking the inhabitants of the household from their beds. The ‘parranderos’ (singers, instrumentalists, party animals) moving from house to house in the community were often joined by friends, neighbours and family, using whatever instruments were at hand. Popular parang instruments include the Venezuelan cuatro (a small, four-string guitar) and maracas (locally known as chac-chacs).

Other instruments often used are violin, guitar, claves (locally known as toc-toc), box bass (an indigenous instrument), tambourine, mandolin, bandol, caja (a percussive box instrument), and marimbula (an Afro-Venezuelan instrument). While the parranderos performed the household’s kitchen would be busy preparing traditional food (pastelle, sorrel, rum and ponche crema – a form of alcoholic eggnog) as an exchange for the entertainment.

Bush Rum

Babash is a traditional rum which is intimately related to the Caribbean sugar cane industry. One of the by-products of sugar is molasses which is used to make alcohol. The East Indian indentured workers and descendants of African slaves made bush rum in makeshift backyard stills, providing a cheap source of alcohol for all social gatherings from funerals to weddings…