The magic of Moriah

Culture Matters

Old time Christmas

Dara E Healy

Beneath the pitch oil tin

The fire's burning bright

Christmas Eve night

They send me off to sleep

Certain I'm out of sight

I stay awake and peep 'til morning light.

Oh, how I wish I were a child again

­– How I Wish I Were a Child Again, sung by Kelwyn Hutcheon, written by Stephen Ferreira

HAVE YOU ever wondered about old-time Christmas traditions in Tobago? Today, we journey with Philbert “Spanish” Joseph, as he recalls Christmas of his childhood in Moriah. Joseph admits that he misses this time, but his nostalgia goes deeper than recalling his favourite foods or Christmas carols. Given our many challenges, he still grapples with the question: how can the values of an earlier time influence society today and lay a better foundation for our future?

Maureen Warner Lewis wrote that JD Elder understood and respected the “archives located in the memories and practices of ordinary people…” Elder, the driving force behind the establishment of the Tobago Heritage Festival, advocated tirelessly for culture and heritage to be treated as key components of national transformation.

Today, the Moriah ole-time wedding is one of the most anticipated events of the festival. The wedding is more than just an opportunity to dress up. Every element has meaning, from the items in the bridal party to the food that is shared. Joseph is a main contributor as a writer, director and performer, as he certainly understands the importance of tradition.

In Moriah, Christmas was ritual. Villagers began to get ready months before, with the selection and rearing of a pig. But we will come back to that.

The house had to be clean, shining, eat-off-the-floor clean. A broom made from black sage bush was cut to clear cobwebs. The table, chairs and wood floor had to be varnished. Curtains were taken down to be washed and a sheet or fabric put up for privacy. All the children and extended family would help.

Now for the food. “Pan cake and sweetbread is a must for Christmas,” says Joseph. These were cooked in a dirt oven. Not everyone in the village had one, so neighbours would share the dirt oven to make pan cake, bread or sweetbread. “We used to wash the salt butter for the bread. And we would cut wood to cook and bake. The dirt oven used wood and dried bamboo.”

Joseph remembers that “most Tobagonians used to mind pig. You would raise them for six months. We used to boil the ham in a biscuit tin because it was very salt. We would also pen up the yard fowl for about two weeks before Christmas and purge them with some aloes water.”

On Christmas Eve, the pig and chickens would be killed. Baking would have started a couple of days before. Then, final cleaning, putting up curtains and "putting away" the house. There was no electricity, but the children would cut a branch and decorate it with cotton and other trinkets for a Christmas tree.

Understandably, everyone would wake up a bit late on Christmas morning. For breakfast, chocolate tea made from cocoa. They would put the pod to dry, pound it in a mortar with a pestle, and grate it when it got hard. Home-made bread, ham and fried fish would start the day right.

Joseph remembers that Santa Claus would drive around on a truck giving out gifts to the children – cars, dolls (yes, white ones) and cap guns. Kite-flying was essential for children on Christmas Day, no doubt as they worked up energy for lunch. Stewed chicken, stewed pork, provision, pigeon peas…you know how Tobagonians do it.

The music of Christmas, called serenade, was primarily carols. Instruments would be a guitar, bottle and spoon. Groups would go from house to house and everyone would make sure they had something to offer. Like the parang tradition, serenaders could not enter without singing the appropriate song. In Moriah, it was We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

For Joseph, the best part of Christmas was the community spirit. “Long time was more giving and sharing. There was more unity. I miss the Christ in Christmas. If you bring back the Christ in Christmas it might ease us from the crime.” I do not think there is anything else to be said. You know he is right.

Dara E Healy is a performance artist and founder of the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN