After a three-odd year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vincentians and other Caribbean nationals in Brooklyn Saturday night reminisced about Christmas at home, as the United Vincie Cultural Group of Brooklyn (UVCGB) brought much nostalgia with its annual Christmas Serenade.
The event – which, in previous years, took place at the Miracle Temple Ministries, an evangelical church in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, where several UVCGB members formally worshipped – took place this year, for the second time, and first time since the pandemic, at the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center on Prospect Place in Brooklyn.
UVCGB members and members of the community participated in Saturday’s three-hour-odd-long event by rendering wistful Christmas songs, reflecting on Christmas preparations at home and dramatizing Christmas themes, among other things.
“In Vincy (St. Vincent and the Grenadines), we want the ham, the ginger beer, sorrel, mauby, baked bread,” said Dr. Roxie Morris, UVCGB president, who served as mistress of ceremonies, after singing “O, Holy Night.” “This is how we do it in the village.”
President of the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Diaspora Committee of New York, Sherrill-Ann Mason-Haywood, joined with Kamla Millwood and Annette Stowe in portraying “We Three Kings.”
“Christmas in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is very nice,” Mason-Haywood said. “We celebrate in the morning, and we celebrate in the night.
“Tonight, we’re going to pretend that we’re going to your home,” she added. “Bring out the Black cake and salt ham.”
Then, the children joined them in singing “Jingle Bells”, “O, Come All Ye Faithful”, and “Joy to the World.”
“And so, when we leave, we sing, ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’,” Mason-Haywood said.
Afterwards, Millwood turned to the two Puerto Ricans in the audience in singing “Feliz Navidad.”
Puerto Rican Hector Perez, who is married to Vincentian Yvette, formerly McKenzie, said they celebrated Christmas in Puerto Rico by eating rice and peas and drinking the very strong and procured alcoholic beverage mama wana (not to be confused with marijuana, as Morris stressed).
Hector Perez’s brother, Raymond Perez, chimed in: “We celebrate with a lot of family, eating pork. Basically, we go home to home.”
Hector’s father-in-law, Edwin McKenzie, 90, who hails from Rose Bank, North Leeward, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, played the guitar and sang “While Shepherds Watch Their Flock”, ending with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
A Guyanese national, who only identified herself as Christian, said: “To experience Christmas in Guyana, you have to go there. It’s something about Spring Cleaning; all the furniture is outside and all-day cleaning; food, Pepperpot (Guyanese favorite dish at Christmas); it’s all about family.
“It’s not about the gift,” Christian added. “They (people) come, and they (families) feed them. Some come to experience this for yourself – wild meat, antelope and manicou (opossum).”
Barbadian Joshua Green said eating ham and turkey is a big part in celebrating Christmas in Barbados.
“We have a good time,” he said tersely.
Vincentian Haywood Thomas, 97, noted that “we’re here to celebrate Christmas. So, I want you to put your hearts together and join together”, singing “Hallelujah.”
Another Vincentian, Emily Mentor James, 72, played, on the harmonica, “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night,” among others.
Selena Nanton, renowned as “Auntie G” in the Vincentian community, rendered “It’s Christmas.”
The lyrics say in part: “I love my sorrel and ginger beer/salivating and cooking/every night we serenading/there is music everywhere.”
Educator Karen DeFreitas, who served as mistress of ceremonies in previous UVCGB Christmas serenades, read a poem, “Christmas Gone Commercial.”
“I’m here to tell you Christmas is about Jesus birthday/listen to the banjo and de pan/Christmas gone commercial,” she read in part.
At the beginning and sporadically throughout the event, Sezzie Miller, sang, among others, “Hark the Herald” and “Joy to the World.”
Singers and serenaders were backed by the UVCGB band, and the UVCGB choir brought the proceeding down with its signature “All We Want for Christmas” and “Christmas, Christmas, We Wish you a Merry Christmas.”
