Lent in the modern world

Last Wednesday the Christian community worldwide began its commemoration of the Lenten period, the holiest in its calendar, leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, central tenets of the Christian faith. In the years before 1977, Lent in St Vincent and the Grenadines followed the pattern in the rest of the global Christian community in that it was immediately preceded by the Carnival season, a season of festivity and bacchanal, a time of merriment and “let yourself go”.

As happens in other major religious communities such as the Hindus and the Muslims, Lent was considered a period of sacrifice and contrition. Even men who were known to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, tended to give up those practices during Lent. Church services not just on Sundays were well attended, and those on Good Friday in particular attracted crowds only seen at Old Year’s night mass.

In addition, Christians were expected to give up many practices to which they had become accustomed. Heavily influenced by Anglo Saxon culture and, considering that in the Caribbean, Carnival had been effectively used by the majority population, of African descent, both to expose the evils of slavery and to poke fun at the descendants of slave owners, it was no surprise that the cultural expressions of the oppressed people was made a target.

Chief among these were the songs and dance of the ordinary people. One could not hear any calypsos on the radio those days and there were no fetes. Even the art of playing steel band was frowned upon as being as “sinful” as singing calypso. The Mighty Sparrow even had a calypso, part of the chorus of which went like this: “Big Sunday morning, dey fighting, dey cussing, dey gambling.

Beating pan, dey beating and iron bolt and stone pelting”.

In other words, playing steel band was tantamount to engaging in law-breaking activities.

It took a long struggle to change such attitudes but gradually at first, and more rapidly afterwards, all these taboos were eroded. There was a move in the opposite direction, sharply reducing the numbers at church services and almost giving a thumbs-up to all kinds of behaviour. While this helped to liberate our precious cultural expressions, it took with it the principles of reverence and sacrifice. It was as if the baby went out with the bath water.

It has left the Christian community with a challenge to maintain the Christian values, especially in the new open society. Some have adapted to more enlightened practices, but it is true to say that some of the older established churches are still coming to grips with the new situation. Yet it is important to preserve the commitment to fundamental principles based on reverence, sacrifice and love for one’s neighbour. The society can only benefit from it.