This is one of Angelo’s unpublished sketches (from his Virtual Meseum of T&T, 2009) infused with Caribbean humour. The greatness and sanctity of Easter must not be lost on us however, and the uniqueness of the Trinidad landscape continues to be a source of inspiration. Remember the ham-pole (greasy pole) of the Easters of long ago. Whatever happened to community development?
—Rudolph Bissessarsingh
Easter was a time of celebration not only for those of Christian persuasion but for all of T&T. It also marked the end of the cane cutting and coincided with reaping and bagging of the cocoa and coffee beans. Easter became the pause in the hard toil in the tropical fields, both for the servant and the master. Many of the cultures had adjusted their particular Christian religious observances to fit into the Caribbean landscape, and these novel adjustments are to be found nowhere else in the world.
Trinidad would see festivities to honour not one, but two black Madonnas. One, La Divina Pastora, Siparia, and the other used in the Tortuga RC Church in the Central Range. Their origins date somewhere in the 1800s and the oral tradition is infused with anecdotes on their miraculous discoveries or appearances. Black Madonnas are not unique to T&T but are to be found in Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, France, Spain and even in parts of northern Europe.
While anthropologists speculate many sociological reasons for these coloured saints, a more recent and plausible explanation is that porcelain and ceramic effigies proved to be somewhat expensive and even difficult to acquire and local wood, mahogany, teak, cedar, were used to carve the effigies. These became darkened with age and countless offerings of oil and lit candles through the decades, accelerated the process.
One very amusing episode of an Easter gone by was recorded by Samuel Selvon. It happened in Arima. It was a re-enactment of the Crucifixion. The person chosen to represent Christ the Saviour was known to all by his nickname Nose-Gay. It was because he spoke in this very obvious nasal tone. Selected to carry the cross to Calvary Hill in Arima, he decided to have a couple swigs of puncheon rum.
Upon reaching the top of this hill, he was tied to the cross and the cross raised erect. In order to bring a sense of drama, in a loud nasal tone he cried out, ‘You can pelt me with little pebbles.’ One street urchin decided to pelt some considerably larger stone missiles.
All the worshippers became stunned with Nose-Gay, in a loud voice shouted, ‘Wait til I come down from this (expletive) cross. I will beat your (expletive).’ The worshippers fled, leaving him on the cross until well into the next day when mercifully, the police cut him down. Sad to say, Nose-Gay never rose again.
Passion re-enactment, the Easter bobolee, the donkey and mule races, the greasy pole and kite flying all make up a wonderful time for every Trinidadian and Tobagonian.