BAVINA SOOKDEO
In the village of Flanagin Town, art teacher Clive Teemul has found a way to marry history and the holiday spirit.
Using his teaching experience and his knowledge of the cultural heritage of his community, Teemul has put together and curates the Cocoa Panyol Museum and Christmas Village.
The Christmas village comprises almost entirely recycled and re-purposed materials such as plastic bottles, glass bottles, Styrofoam and scrap fabric.
The traditional cartoon characters and Christmas figures are all hand-designed and hand-painted by Teemul.
The museum contains artefacts, some of which were donated by people in the community.
There is also a roadside display that is set in a separate area and offers spacious surroundings with ease of accessibility and movement in a clean, green environment.
In addition to the display itself, visitors are treated to photo opportunities, a festive drink such as sorrel or hot chocolate, a short, guided tour of the museum and a small snack pack for children while stocks last. Some may be served home-made hops baked on banana leaves.
Born and raised in Flanagin Town on rented property which was part of a cocoa estate, Teemul was the seventh of eight children. Together with his parents, he lived in what he describes as “a humble wooden dwelling.” As progress was made, the wooden structure was replaced with a concrete house.

“We grew up with sound family values and family cohesiveness,” he told Newsday.
“Our parents were hard-working to maintain the family stability…they were creative, enabling self-sufficiency in some ways. We never had Christmas decorations and gifts, except balloons while growing up. No tree, only some postcards hung on a string on the living-room wall.
“As I grew older and began teaching, I was able to afford some decorations, tree, crèche. Each year I tried to add something new. My nieces and nephews anticipated visits here to see ‘what new Uncle Clive had’…their excitement never grew weak.”
He said after his mother died in August 2012 and his father in June 2015, he did not decorate the house.
Instead, he decided to take them to his school, Tabaquite Secondary, so his students could enjoy them.
Eventually, he created a mini Christmas village in his art room, adding children’s art projects to the display.
“I linked with other subject departments which were willing to add to the display. Some teachers did Christmas storytelling in the Christmas village during their lunchtimes.”
He observed the reactions of students, and resolved to create something bigger and better for the children the following year.
In 2016, together with a colleague who sourced raw materials, and the efforts of students and teachers from neighbouring primary schools, the Christmas village with the theme Being a child again this Christmas was opened. 
In 2017, Teemul saw the need for a permanent museum and worked toward the opening of Cocoa Panyol Museum.
“In brainstorming the theme that year, I looked for ways in which Christmas of long ago influenced Christmas today.
“As the thought of pastelles and parang echoed in my mind, I initially associated the Spanish connection, but as I examined it further, it dawned on me that the Venezuelan connection was evident...those who came in the mid 1800s were not pure Spanish, but a tri-racial or
pardo group mixed with Amerindian/African/Spanish….they were the group known as the ‘panyols’ and the ones who worked the estates, like the one I lived on, were commonly called ‘cocoa panyols.’ It is with this realisation that I decided to name the museum Cocoa Panyol Museum.”
Since the Christmas project and the museum concept developed at a phenomenal rate, in 2017 Teemul moved it to his home, where visitors could have easier access at their convenience rather than during confined hours at school.
“I chose my home and yard where I can monitor and attend to its needs without stress or difficulty.
“Also, I can easily link my discussions with the history of my own village. I can draw or attract people to a district which would normally be unknown to many Trinidadians. These efforts can open up rural travel and exploration by outsiders.
“Flanagin Town is said to be at the centre of Trinidad as told from the days of World War II, when American pilots flew over the RC Church and used it as a landmark.”
He said he faced some challenges when establishing the museum – from finding artefacts to reorganising home space and creating an inviting environment. But with time, the community and visitors contributed items, and Teemul’s resourcefulness turned garage and living-room spaces into museum corners. Glass cases, funded by visitor donations, now protect the artefacts, reducing maintenance.
Teemul said initially, the number of members of the community visiting both the museum and Christmas display was extremely small, but last year there was an observable upward spike in villager visits at Christmas time. He also noted that a few villagers visited several times during the Christmas season.
“Visitors from outside have been gradually increasing over the years,” he said.
“The total visitors for December so far this year is 115,” which will most likely increase because the Christmas display runs until the evening of January 1, 2024.
Teemul said visitors “...are overwhelmed and excited throughout their visit.
“Upon entry recently one visitor who accompanied a tour group organised by the National Trust said when she reached and observed from the road she wondered, ‘What are we really going to do in this place for four hours?’…but upon entering and going through the planned activities, she quickly retracted that thought.
“Many seniors share their personal experiences with us. We look forward to learning from visitors, not only imparting knowledge from the museum. Some visitors return with other persons whom they mobilised for a trip here.
“Some visitors indicate that they came as a result of feedback from previous visitors, or from social media coverage and conventional media coverage. Some are returning to the place of their childhood and reuniting with family members through the museum efforts or even reuniting in the museum.
“Some are brought to tears by standing in the presence of an artefact they realise belonged specifically to a grandparent or relative.”
Teemul envisions expanding the village by adding interactive sessions and diversifying museum offerings. But, he said, there will be need for more media coverage and exposure to attract visitors.
During the Christmas season the Cocoa Panyol Museum and Christmas Village is open daily from 10 am-10 pm. Outside of the Christmas season, it is open on weekends and public holidays from 1-5 pm. Special arrangements can be made for group and weekday bookings.
Teemul said, “During the month of December there is no planned cost for drop-in visits: we rely on the goodness and generosity of visitors’ cash donations.
“For drop-ins during the year, the same policy applies...donations are optional but highly appreciated.
“For group visits, details and costs are discussed when making arrangements, depending on group size, age group and the package desired, as these visits require lengthy preparation and incur high costs.”
Lunch is optional at an extra cost.
He said all income goes towards accommodation for artefacts, acquiring additional artefacts and to provide additional infrastructure such as display units, and land preparation for future expansion.
For more info call 733-5701 or visit the Facebook page Cocoa Panyol Museum.
(Source: Newsday, Dec 16, 2023)

From a professional-sounding perspective, Nicholas Walker calls himself a conservationist and nature enthusiast.
But in casual conversation, he is “just a man who likes the bush.”
From fields to forests, the former national footballer is now on a mission to get more people interested in this country’s flora and fauna.
Walker, 33, was raised in St Ann’s, Port of Spain, in a large family. He told Sunday Newsday he has always been surrounded by and in love with nature.
“(As a child) I was exactly like I am now – probably worse. We grew up doing bush things, we had a farm and those kinds of things.”
His childhood heroes were the legendary English broadcaster and biologist Sir David Attenborough and late Australian conservationist Steve Irwin. His eyes would be glued to the TV any time Animal Planet or Discovery Channel were on.
He attended St Margaret’s Boys’ Anglican Primary School, then St Mary’s College. He then did a bachelor’s degree in sports management at the Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey, US, graduating in 2014.
It was there the defender played college football and later played professionally for MLS (Major League Soccer) team FC Dallas, among others. He has also played for TT’s national under-20 football team.


But when his grandmother, Gloria Walker, fell ill, he decided to return home in 2018. She died two months after he got back.
Admittedly, just before his return, he felt like he was “losing the connection to (his) roots.”
He recalled his grandmother continually encouraging him.
“She was my rock (and) the greatest matriarch you’d ever meet. She not only raised seven children but 20-30-something grandchildren, and without an education. Seeing that type of love was an inspiration.”
So Walker returned to his happy place – nature.
He said he got the opportunity to travel the world thanks to football, and “by doing that, I realised that TT has so many of the things (flora and fauna) you can see abroad.
“It might be a different colour, but we have it.”
He then felt mandated to urge others to “show some appreciation and encourage them (to explore TT) a bit more.”
That, he concluded, is his purpose.
“It’s the thing that came easy to me.
“I think a lot of people have this idea that they need to chase after their purpose. For me, your purpose is the thing that comes easy to you.”
The passion behind this purpose eventually led to his nature tour business, TTrodOn Tours And Experiences/Exploring TT.
“I started taking friends and it moved from my friends to their family and friends.
“I remember (tours) would be like $20 back then.”
Living up to his surname, his preferred method of transport is walking – which he does barefoot.
In fact, he once walked from Port of Spain to Maracas, and from Port of Spain to Grande Riviere, a fishing community along the northeastern coast.
He now makes YouTube videos of places he hikes or explores with his friends Zakirayya Ali, Saifaudeen Mohammed and Sabrina Ali. In the videos, he gives fun facts about every animal or ecosystem he comes across in effort to educate.
In what he described as “a chance of a lifetime,” he got the opportunity to assist the crew of the BBC docuseries Liz Bonnin's Wild Caribbean in November. The team was here to see the white-fronted capuchin monkey. Bonnin said there are only 50 mature adults left of this species in the world, and they're all in TT.
Bonnin lived here for some time as she was born to a TT mother and her father, originally from Martinique, also lived here.
Walker had visited the area they were exploring – Bush Bush Forest/Wildlife Sanctuary – a week earlier and posted videos about it.
“So a week later, my friend’s mom was like, ‘Aye, these people from the BBC coming.’ Don’t ask me how (she knew) but she said it would be a good opportunity to go see what they do, that I could help them carry equipment…”
So he went.
But after several hours of trying, they still had not found the animal.
“And at one point, I just took it upon myself and said I’d take the camera crew alone to the spot where we found our monkey.”
He said the monkey is very skittish, so the large team would have lowered the chances of its coming out.
“So I could hear a male making a call, and I started whistling back. He was coming closer, to see who is this other male (capuchin) in his territory.
“You could see him coming through the branches, and he came straight to the camera, realised, ‘Wait, this is not a monkey,’ then took off.”
He said a cameraman ran after the monkey, which paused for a drink of water, allowing him to get the perfect photo.
“That experience just solidified my purpose in this space. When it comes to nature in TT, this is what I am supposed to be doing. I am trying to encourage (TT nationals) to learn their home and I think if you do, you can respect it a little more and appreciate it a little more.
“You’d realise in my videos – you don’t really see people. I want to show TT’s nature, and the vibrance of what we have right here.”
He recently came across the Suriname toad, which he said had not been recorded as seen in TT for at least 32 years, as well as the critically endangered golden tree frog.
Sunday Newsday did a mini hike with Walker at the Bamboo Cathedral in Chaguaramas, which he insisted was not a hike but “a small stroll.”
It was there he and the team saw a group of tufted capuchins, among smaller critters.
But Walker credits a lot of his knowledge to the friends he goes on adventures with.
“Yes, I know trees, I know animals, but I learnt from them. I always have to give credit where it is due. They actually have degrees in these things.”
He also does wildlife photography and is known for taking impressive close-up shots of snakes.
“If you sit in nature long enough, stories will start to unfold.”
A dream of his has always been to work with Caribbean Airlines to have his work featured in some way.
He said three weeks ago, the company “messaged (him) out of nowhere” saying they liked his work and wanted to send him to Dominica to do something similar.
“Dominica has been the only place in the world I’ve wanted to go since I was 16, and I still had not been. It was an amazing experience and there was so much to see.”
Although he has seen many animals, he is yet to see a (mapepire zanana) bushmaster (
Lachesis) snake – the largest venomous snake in the Americas – and an ocelot, but hopes he can achieve that soon.
“Nature, in itself, just gives to us, and we are supposed to protect it.” (Source: Newsday Dec 16, 2023)

Wendy Rahamut

With only two weeks to Christmas, I know most of you will be in frenzy mode. For me it’s the Christmas baking I like to get done ahead of time, especially my Christmas black cakes and cookies. Christmas cookies make delightful gifts and its one activity you can engage the whole family. I enjoy black cakes and enjoy making them, and I also am very fond of Dundee cakes, rich with fruits and nuts, this year I will be making my traditional black cakes but I’m promising myself a Dundee as well.



Thumbprint cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
⅓ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
2½ cups all-purpose flour
pinch salt
2 egg whites
1 cup finely chopped nuts, (peanuts, hazelnuts or almonds)
1 cup jam or jelly any type
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Butter and flour baking trays.
Cream butter until light. Beat in brown sugar and granulated sugar.
Add egg yolks and vanilla, beat until blended.
Combine flour and salt and add to batter.
Stir until a dough like consistency is formed.
Shape cookies into one-inch balls and place on a trays.
Lightly beat egg whites in a shallow bowl.
Place finely chopped nuts in another shallow dish.
Roll each ball of cookie dough in egg white and then roll lightly in nuts.
Place on prepared trays about one inch apart.
Press centre of each cookie in slightly using your thumb or index finger.
Bake for 9 to 12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
Gently press the indentation again and cool cookies on racks.
When cookies are cooled, spoon a little jam or jelly into the centres.
Makes about 48 cookies
Sugared fruit shortbread
1 cup dried fruit, raisins and currants
2 tsp aromatic bitters
1 cup unsalted butter
⅔ cup icing sugar, sifted
1½ tsp salt
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup coarse-grained golden sugar
Wash and dry fruit, place in a bowl and add bitters, stir.
Let macerate for about one hour.
Chop fruit finely in a food processor.
Cream butter with icing sugar, add salt and flour.
Mix well, add fruit and combine.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead to a uniform texture.
Divide into 2 pieces. Roll each into a 7-inch log, wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
Chill for about 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Place golden sugar into a plate.
Slice cookies ¼ inch thick; roll in the sugar, covering the ends only.
Place on cookie sheets one inch apart
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove and cool on racks.
Makes 24
Rich West Indian Dundee cake
1 lb butter
½ lb granulated sugar
½ lb brown sugar
8 eggs
Zest of three limes
2 tbs vanilla essence
1 tsp almond essence
1¼ lb all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 oz ground almonds
½ cup rum (optional)
1 lb currants
1 lb sultanas
½ lb mixed peel
¼ lb cherries (red & green, cut)
3 ozs chopped Nuts
Pre-heat oven to 325 F.
Grease and line two nine inch by 3 inch cake tins.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time beating well between additions.
Add the lime zest, almond and vanilla essence.
Sieve flour, baking powder and mix in the ground almonds and fold into the batter with the rum if using.
Toss cherries, currants, sultanas, mixed peel and chopped nuts in some flour, coat evenly, shake off excess flour.
Add to the batter and gently fold in.
Bake for about 1½ hrs or until cake leaves the sides of the tin.
Cool cake in tin before removing.
Makes 2 nine inch cakes.
rahamut@gmail.com
@wendyrahamut3881 youtube.
(Source: Newsday, Dec 16, 2023)

Author :An­ge­lo Bisses­sars­ingh
Christ­mas just ain't Christ­mas with­out a good ham. In Trinidad of yes­ter­year, the pre­cious leg of pork would be boil­ing in a pitch-oil tin for many hours be­fore be­ing baked, ei­ther in a coalpot tin oven or a bee­hive mud oven, to be served with oth­er tra­di­tion­al fare like pastelles and fruit cake.
Chances are the ham would be di­min­ished long be­fore the fam­i­ly could have a go at it, through the in­roads of "mop­pers," oth­er­wise known as vil­lage paran­deros.
The choic­es for ham lovers were not easy. Price was a ma­jor con­sid­er­a­tion as well as qual­i­ty. In the coun­try­side ar­eas, the ham every­one knew was a salty, well-cured leg of pork hang­ing from the rafters of the Chi­nese shop. This would be an Amer­i­can ham, im­port­ed in bar­rels of saw­dust with some of that still cling­ing to the sur­face.
Af­ter boil­ing the skin would be stripped off be­fore bak­ing. The skin it­self was kept un­til af­ter Christ­mas, when mon­ey was scarce, and would be used to pro­vide pro­tein in a meal of rice or as the meat in a sand­wich. It could al­so be fried crisp and eat­en as a snack. The fat was used to leav­en bakes. Even the ham bone did not go to waste. Bro­ken up in pieces, it was used in soups, callaloo and oil-down.
The low­est grade of ham was what was known as the "pitch ham." This was lo­cal­ly made and smoked. To pre­serve it, the pitch ham had a coat­ing of as­phalt on the out­side, which made the skin ined­i­ble and im­part­ed a min­er­al flavour to the meat which I am told was far from un­pleas­ant-al­though one can imag­ine that it was not the health­i­est food around.
In the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry, an Amer­i­can ham cost about $5, with the pitch ham sell­ing for $2 less. This was no mean ex­pen­di­ture in an era when it was a de­cent month­ly wage for a do­mes­tic ser­vant, mak­ing the ham an in­dul­gence.
The ham most Tri­nis were fa­mil­iar with was the York ham. The York ham is mild­ly flavoured, light­ly smoked and dry-cured, which is salti­er but milder in flavour than oth­er Eu­ro­pean dry-cured ham. It has del­i­cate pink meat and does not need fur­ther cook­ing be­fore eat­ing. It is tra­di­tion­al­ly served with Madeira sauce. Folk­lore has it that the oak used for con­struc­tion for York Min­ster in Eng­land pro­vid­ed the fu­el for smok­ing the meat.
York hams were sold from most city gro­ceries like Can­nings and the Ice House and al­so de­part­ment stores with pro­vi­sion de­part­ments, like Stephens. The fa­mous Ice House Gro­cery on Ma­rine (In­de­pen­dence) Square in­clud­ed a York ham in its fa­mous $5 Christ­mas ham­pers.
Packed chock-full of good­ies like Mus­ca­tel wine, nuts, im­port­ed sweets and dried fruits for the fa­mous rum cake, these ham­pers could be packed in­to a wood­en box and for­ward­ed by rail to cus­tomers deep in the coun­try­side.
Even though some pre­fer turkey, the hall­mark of Christ­mas is still a ham.
Photo 1. : Salt ham hanging at Sing Chong Supermarket on Charlotte Street, Port of-Spain. Photo Credit : BRIAN NG FATT.  (Source:  Angelo Bissessarsingh's Virtual Museum of Trinidad & Tobago, Nov 27, 2023)

​By HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR ANGELO BISSESSARSINGH (2010)
For most Trinidadians, no Christmas season would be complete without a trip to Frederick St in Port of Spain to take advantage of bargains, window-shop and to savour the whirl and rush of humanity occasioned by the hectic Christmas atmosphere. This photo dates from 1950.
With the jolly season now in full swing, we begin to be aware of those annual occurrences which make Christmas in Trinidad a unique and savory experience. The hams have begun to put in appearances in the supermarket freezers, and the ruddy hue of sorrel on the wooden trestles of roadside hucksters. Demijohns of ginger ale have begun to grace windowsills for fermentation, and notwithstanding the astronomical price of the raw material, most assuredly will give a sharp bite to those who dare to partake of the aged vintage. Errant bakers of the domestic kitchens are sampling with gusto the rum-drenched dried fruit which have been soaking since the middle of June and which will soon form an integral part of an aromatic fruit cake. Toys which range from the simple trinkets of a bygone era to complex mechanisms with embedded microchips have commenced their temptation of young desires who fervently hope that Santa will bestow upon them, the rewards of a year of good behavior. Amidst the thick air of anticipation and festivity it would not be amiss to take a retrospective look at local Christmases of yesteryear. Almost every nostalgic Trinidadian and Tobagonian can tell stories of the ham being boiled in a pitch-oil tin, the flurry of new curtains, paranderos and the joyous tedium of pastelles on the make, but I intend to take a more historically systematic view when looking at the Trini Christmases Past.
In the pre-emancipation era (1834 and earlier) Christmas was celebrated in the plantation great houses with much pomp and ceremony as befitted the status of landed gentry. With the influx of French settlers with the 1783 Cedula of Population, Christmas balls became fairly commonplace, graced no doubt by lavish dinners of wild meat roasts, consommés of local fruit, and wines imported from Europe. The house slaves of the estates would have been the grateful end beneficiaries of the residue of these Christmas revels of the masters.
The pleasure of the field slaves were infinitely more simple and consisted of little more than an extra allowance of food and perhaps a length of cloth. One account from 1823 tells of a Christmas on Lopinot’s La Reconnaissance cocoa estate where slaves were given a dole. The account runs thus ‘At nine o’clock while at breakfast, the whole of the negroes came dressed in the gayest clothes to wish us a Merry Christmas, and a piece of beef and an allowance of flour and raisins were distributed to all of them with a proportion of rum for the men and wine for the women.’ The writer continues to describe how the slaves were given two suits of clothes each, following which they visited the cemetery of the Lopinot family (still to be seen) where prayers were said for the departed Comte de Lopinot and flowers strewn over the huge unmarked gravestones. With the advent of East Indian labourers on the sugar and (to a lesser extent) cocoa estates of the island after 1845, Christmas took on a dimension of minor importance. Mostly, the labourers were Hindus and Muslims and therefore did not celebrate Christmas. Admittedly, some aspects of the field slave Christmas still survived as 19th century accounts tell of one proprietor’s wife in Central Trinidad, Elisa DeVerteuil, sharing out an annual bonus of flour, cloth and other staples to the East Indians of Woodford Lodge estate. The arrival of Rev. John Morton in 1868 marked the commencement of the Canadian Mission to the Indians (CMI) through the auspices of the Canadian Presbyterian Church.
Under the influence to the early missionaries of the CMI, Christmas became a more regular occurrence in the predominantly Indo-Trinidadian sugar-belt communities of Central and South Trinidad. Those early CMI Christmases were simple affairs, with carols being sung (some in Hindi through the translations of the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Grant and Lal Behari) and presents in the form of decorated cards and booklets being distributed, these being sent from mission fields in Canada for the benefit of their ‘heathen’ brethren in Trinidad. Conversely, as is recorded by Sir V.S Naipaul in A House for Mr. Biswas, Indo-Trinidadian Christmas celebrations in the estate barracks comprised for the most part of a surfeit of food and grog, after which a spate of wife and child beatings would inevitably follow to cap off Christmas Day revelries.
Christmas for the urban Afro-Trinidadian, particularly for those of the barrack-yards of East Port of Spain, was a more complex affair although like their East Indian contemporaries, Yuletide activities invariably involved the consumption of copious libations of spirits, sometimes with unwelcome side-effects. The seminal thesis on life in the barrack-yards published by James Cummings (Barrack-Yard Dwellers) gives an insightful window into the Christmases of these unique inner-city environments. Cummings tells of old curtains being boiled in a broth of tea-leaves to brighten the fading textiles, when new pieces could not be afforded. Crockery, which languished year-round as ornaments would be washed in anticipation of the Christmas feast, the preparation of which was a process in itself. According to Cummings, chicken, ham and beef would be prepared according to the circumstances of the families. ‘Professional’ women known as matadores, would be provided with money beforehand by their male ‘keepers’ and would indulge in much food and drink for the big day.
The all important preparation of the fruit cake would be supervised by ‘peel men’ at local bakeries, which in fine Dickensian style, would take in the batter of the barrack-yard cakes to be baked. The peel men were sometimes tipsy from numerous shots of rum, so often the cakes met with disaster when being slipped into and out of the mud ovens with a long-handled wooden paddle known as the ‘peel’.
The menfolk of the barrack-yards were not left standing in the Christmas bustle. Months beforehand, they would purchase gallons of poor-quality rum known as ‘ca-ca-poule’ to which would be added tonka beans, citrus peel and even methylated spirits to increase the mellowness and potency of the rum. A more dignified barrack-yard Xmas dinner of the 1930s is recounted in C.L.R James’ Minty Alley wherein the well-furnished table of Mrs. Rouse is graced by a quart of iced champagne, good company and the unique camaraderie of a truly Trini Christmas.
A valuable glimpse of a Christmas of the white planter elite in 1911 is given by P.E.T O’Connor, whose grandfather, Gaston De Gannes was one of the last aristocratic French-Creole patriarchs of the plantation era and who presided over his stately home, La Chance, near Arima. Every Christmas, De Gannes’ large family would descend on La Chance, complete with a battery of maidservants for care of the children. O’Connor describes the Christmas morning ritual where the children were sent up to Gaston’s room to pay him their season’s compliments: ‘He would be standing in his bedroom near his huge wardrobe with its doors open, as on the inside was tacked a neatly written list of grandchildren. As we all paraded in and out with our good wishes, he would consult the list and hand out the appropriate largesse. A golden sovereign to the eldest son of each family, a half sovereign to the eldest girl and a silver crown or half-crown to the younger children’. In terms of the monetary values of the day, the golden sovereign coin was worth more than an entire year’s wages for one of the labourers on Gaston’s cocoa estates. O’Connor goes on to describe the breakfast of hot chocolate and bread, followed by Mass at Santa Rosa R.C Church, the day being crowned by a magnificent family dinner, graced by Bordeaux wine and French claret.
The emergence of parang is really attributable to the influx of peons, called the panyols, of Venezuela, who provided a significant percentage of the labour force during the cocoa boom years of 1870-1920. While parang has become fairly commercialized of late, the Christmas ritual, introduced by the panyols, actually involves three stages. In Lopinot, the tradition held true for many years, preserved by such sages as Sotero Gomez and Pedro Segundo Dolabaille. The first stage is when upon arrival at a hospitable home, the paranderos would sing from the doorstep, an Aguinaldo, or song of praise, telling of the Nativity, Adoration or Ascension of Christ. This is the signal for the householder to throw open his/her doors to the paranderos who continue to serenade the home with Aguinaldos until the descanso, or rest period, when the bards are regaled with victuals and drink consisting mainly of ham, pastelles and fruit cake, as well as sorrel and ginger beer.
From the doorsteps of the countryside, the parang music was taken to a national level by the artistry of pioneers like the late Parang Queen, Daisy Voisin and the Lara Brothers. While on the subject of music, it is interesting to note that in San Fernando during the 1870s to the 1890s, the crown jewel of the town’s Christmas events calendar consisted of a grand concert which was held first at the Oriental Hall on Carib St. (present-day location of Grant Memorial Presbyterian School) and later, at the Drill Hall (where Naparima Bowl now stands). The performers in this cantata almost unanimously hailed from the very musically-inclined Vilain family, who were a prominent coloured French Creole clan. Patriarch Jean-Marie Vilain, along with his sons Pierre, Alexander and Jean-Marie Jr. were gifted musicians. Pierre, until his death in 1879, even had an international reputation as a master of the violin which earned him the title of ‘The West Indian Paganini’. With the death of Jean Marie and Alexander in the 1890s, this chapter of San Fernando’s Christmas story was brought to a close.
In retrospect, Christmas has from the earliest period, occupied a special place in the collective consciousness of our people. Even when adversity beset the islands during two World Wars and the recessionary period of the 1980s, nothing seemed to be able to dull the inherent warmth and camaraderie of Trinbagonians which find its most apt expression during Christmastime. As the words of Susan Maicoo’s now-staple ballad most appropriately put it ‘Trini Christmas is de best". (Source: Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago, Nov 23, 2023)

The great calypso, soca and steelband musician, composer and arranger Earl Rodney has passed.
Earl lead the Mighty Sparrow's excellent Troubadours band for a number years between the late 1960's and mid 1970’s and arranged a number of the Mighty Sparrow's calypso classics including the immortal hit called "Memories".
Additionally Earl worked on Lord Shorty's trademark soca classic "Sweet Music" as well as arranging all the tracks on Black Stalin's iconic 1978/1979 calypso/soca album called "Caribbean Unity".
Earl was also the main arranger for Solo Harmonites Steel Orchestra back in their glory days between 1968 and 1974 when they won the T&T National Large Bands Panorama Finals on four occasions.
Condolences goes out to all family, loved-ones and music colleagues of this great man and musician.
May his spirit journey smoothly to join the other great ancestors and may his soul rest in eternal peace! (Source:  Angelo Bissessarsingh's Virtual Museum of Trinidad & Tobago)

Source: Trinbago Golden Memories