Easter

As spring break was coming to a close we were looking forward to celebrating our first Easter in Guyana. It's always interesting to see how the various holidays differ from those in the US. One of the major differences with the Easter holiday is that here in Guyana they always celebrate it on Monday. Easter Monday? That's right. Really that's just an excuse to have more holiday time off work, but it still strikes me as very strange, especially from a Christian point of view.

Another major difference between the two countries is that the Guyanese have never even heard of an Easter egg hunt. Their way of celebrating is to have a national kite flying day. It's actually really fun. Everyone everywhere flies kites. In Georgetown everyone gathers in the "botanical garden" just outside the zoo to celebrate. In our neck of the woods people travel out to the coast where one particular beach is jam packed with hoards of people. In both of these places it sounds like people stay pretty much all day, flying kites and picnicking. There is music and the playing of games along with loads of good food, drinking, family, and friends. Easter has been described (in the secular world) as the most exciting holiday in Guyana.







We spent our Easter in our quiet jungle haven. We prefer it that way. Still celebrating on Sunday like the good Americans we made sure to join the Sissons for some kiting around campus. I had purchased a nice big kite in town the week before and had been aching to try it out. It looked kind of like a sting ray. Our ray swam trough the sky pretty well if I do say so myself. We ran all over the place with Abby and Josh until we were so hot and tired we could have melted. It was grand fun!