Each of these popular celebrations has its distinct national character, but the tradition of street parades and the carnivalesque with masquing, costumed bands, music, street dancing and revelry is common to all. This is because of the strong historical influence of two traditions: carnival and the masquerade, which are manifested in many different variations around the region. There is a carnival belt in the Eastern Caribbean islands and Trinidad to which Barbados (despite its location in the Eastern Caribbean), Jamaica and Guyana do not belong. In these three territories, the culture that developed out of French colonization or settlement was either non-existent or marginal. It is within that culture that Carnival evolved in Trinidad especially, and in the other islands.

Guyana falls outside of this, although it is next door to Brazil, which has its own different history, but whose Carnival in Rio is the biggest and most awesome in the world. Yet, once Guyana developed a festival like Mashramani, it took on many of the characteristics of the carnival and masquerade traditions. This kind of similarity in spite of important differences is even more pronounced in Barbados, where Crop-Over is a virtual carnival promoted by Barbadians as a serious rival to Trinidad.

Mashramani and Carnival

Another interesting point is that despite their radically different roots, the Mashramani and Carnival seasons coincide. This, however, may be put down as merely coincidental; it makes no significant cultural statement and, ironically, highlights the contrasting origins of the festivals. Carnival evolved after 1783 when French colonials with their African slaves accepted an invitation from the Spanish to settle in Trinidad. The period between Christmas and Lent was significant for revelry, and set the stage for the evolution of an elaborate indigenous carnival. The year 1783, however, was followed by several important events including the British take-over in 1797 and more than 100 years of artistic, cultural, social, demographic and political involvements about which it is difficult to offer a satisfactory brief summary.

In contrast, Mashramani's history is brief. It was established by decree to celebrate a significant political event: Guyana becoming a Republic on February 23, 1970. It adopted the name from an Amerindian tradition of merrymaking or celebrating after some form of cooperative work. If one member of a community has a large task of work to be done, others would join in to help and they would celebrate when it was done. But the Arawak word used to describe that is mashirimehi, which simply means 'cooperative work,' according to J P Bennett. He explains that there is no Arawak word for 'cooperative fun-making,' and the word "mashramani was coined to mean national merrymaking" or, as some gloss it, "celebration after cooperative work (or after hard work)."

Unlike a traditional festival like Carnival, it does not have roots in any indigenous tradition; nor did it evolve out of folk theatre or natural cultural progressions. It may be characterized as manufactured. It therefore does not compare with Carnival or other cultural evolutions in terms of character, definition, artistry or spectacle.

Nevertheless, it developed in the same carnivalesque tradition common among all Caribbean people. It incorporated cultural practices that predated it in Guyanese popular culture. Steel band 'tramps,' carnival activity and calypso were already known in Georgetown before Mashramani began, and just as it happened elsewhere in the Caribbean, they became natural activities in the new festival. The high fever and the hypnotic possession of tramping are captured in a play, The Tramping Man, by Ian McDonald dated around 1966. McDonald plays on the Pied Piper of Hamelin motif to suggest the way Georgetown revellers were possessed by the spirit of tramping, much like the fabled carnival fever.

Mashramani, therefore, developed around the calypso, later soca, steel band, costumed bands, floats, road march, street revels and the crowning of a calypso king. There is a build-up in the season from January through to the Mashramani Day on February 23 when all take to the streets.

This is a close parallel to the other popular national festivals Crop-Over with its culminating Kadooment Day, Jamaica Festival and carnival. It bears special resemblance to the Trinidad Carnival season, which starts after Christmas and ends at midnight on Shrove Tuesday, just when Ash Wednesday and Lent begin. However, although the seasons correspond they bear no other relation to each other. Of further relevance is the fact that other carnivals such as Vincimas (St Vincent), the St Lucian and the Antiguan are held in summer, some of them having shifted to avoid clashing with Trinidad, or because of the vagaries of the tourist season.

As the Guyanese festival developed over the years, it lost some of the glitter, as there are no longer any large costumed bands with intricate and imaginative designs based on themes and concepts. While the Trinidadians take the carnival band very seriously and have taken it to a high art and to the zenith of spectacle, neither Barbados nor Guyana bother to put in any effort today. The Jamaicans have tried, the Guyanese no longer try. The steel bands have also faded to relics in Guyana, and although there is always a calypso monarchy, the music industry has failed to produce a large volume of local calypsos or socas strong enough to sustain a whole day on the road. The breach has been joyously filled by soca from Trinidad and Barbados, and reggae dub from the Jamaican DJs. It is a joke to declare a Guyanese Road March each year since there is no infrastructure for it and a scarcity of worthy contenders.

Character and identity

Growing diffused along this road, the Guyanese national festival seemed to have no character or identity of its own. The streets were peopled by only a few costumes and T-shirt bands, although they rivalled their Caribbean counterparts with the 'wining' and suggestive exhibitions that are a part of the culture but have always drawn bitter complaints from some citizens. They have still not, however, equalled the semi-nudity of Trinidad or Barbados. There was a time when the event suffered appallingly poor administration and the organizers took to calling it 'mash carnival' in an effete attempt to win it some substance.

Then change and the popular culture have exerted some pressure on the way Mashramani is moving. A good example of this is the adoption of the Soca Monarch competition held in a popular beach-type setting. This is the latest borrowing from Barbados Crop-Over, which has experienced its own popular influences from Trinidad. Another is the fashionable 'glow' parties, freshly imported from Trinidad. The 'sets' or 'sound systems' now dominate the day, which is strongly characterized by a grand outdoor picnic.

Through its history, the festival has also suffered political abuses, attempts at division, official neglect and disinterest.

But it seems to have triumphed as a popular tradition. It is, perhaps, now better organized and promoted than it has ever been; it now attracts the largest crowds that it has ever seen on the streets; and these crowds have overcome the ubiquitous Guyanese race politics by being loudly multi-ethnic. The most artistic and promising element in Mashramani is still the children and schools' competitions in dance, dramatic poetry and costumes, although the contest for the very young children is poorly stage-managed.