Overseas Guyanese join nationals to celebrate Easter at home

Easter is one of the most celebrated occasions on the Caribbean calendar, and like Guyana, a CARICOM member state, the season brought joy and excitement as celebrants attended church services on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and family picnics, and kite flying on Easter Monday.

Easter celebrants picnic in the Botanical Gardens, Guyana, as outdoor gatherings return, post-pandemic.Photo by Tangerine Clarke

This year, with Covid restrictions fully lifted after three years, and outdoor activities back in full effect, hundreds of thousands, including plane loads of overseas Guyanese converged on the Botanical Gardens, the National Park, and the popular Seawall, where the skyline was littered with colorful flyers.

The sweltering 90-degree weather was fitting for the return of bustling ice-cream and food vendors, and loud music, that made for dancing and merriment around areas of Georgetown, against the backdrop of President Ali’s themed One Guyana sign, that were strategically placed, in the capital, to remind Guyanese of togetherness.

An avid kite flyer travelled from Port Kaituma in the interior of Guyana to fly his kite over the Atlantic Ocean from the Seawall.Photo by Tangerine Clarke

One gentleman walking along the Seawall with a large colorful kite, told this reporter, that he had travelled from as far as Port Kaituma, a small village in the interior of Guyana to fly his kite at the water’s edge.

Sylvester LaRose was also happy to share that he is an expert box kite maker. He and his son were the only persons with such a design that he says is difficult to create, but which he completed in two days.

Many said it felt good being outdoors again with family post-pandemic. Many people are coming to support Guyana during the Easter season. Easter is a time when the nation come together. It is a time to get together with friends and strangers, as seen in the National Park, said another celebrant. Some are enjoying music, eating food, flying kites, and socializing in general, said another.

It was unanimous that family, food, frolicking, and kite flying, brought together citizens from across the country to once enjoy the activities they love after a long and difficult return to life as they know it, post-pandemic.