President David Granger: Vice Chairman, other officials, I’m happy to be here. The Chairman has spoken about problems and I am here with solutions and I am going to solve the problems that children have on Easter Monday and this is a solution to the Easter Monday problem. We have to come here to have fun and I want children to have fun on Easter Monday because this is a Guyanese tradition.
If you go elsewhere in the Caribbean you wouldn’t see thousands and thousands of children flying kites on Easter Monday, but we Guyanese love to fly kites on Easter Monday. Anybody here is a Hindu? Anybody is a Muslim? Anybody here is Baha’i? Anybody here is Buddhist? Anybody here is a Christian? Well what is Easter about, then? Easter is about kite flying, right? Easter comes at the end of Lent – Lent is a period that starts on Ash Wednesday and it’s about 40 days and 40 nights of prayer and passion. You remember the passion of Jesus and Easter …the day when he was crucified…
The Muslims too have what they call Ramadan where in the month of Ramadan they don’t eat or drink anything during the day, except some Muslims, but at the end of fasting they remember the holy prophet Muhammad, they remember their service to God. There is a big festival called Eid, so Muslims and Christians have a similar tradition of fasting, of sacrifice and at the end of that sacrifice they have celebrations which would take place on Sunday.
So we have brought these kites here to help children to celebrate because whether you are Hindu or Muslim or Baha’i or Buddhist, Easter Monday is here and Guyanese are united. All Guyanese, regardless of race, religion, regardless if you are from the ‘high’ way or the ‘low’ way… We all celebrate Easter Monday, it’s a Guyanese thing. So we all unite and particularly our government, our region has come here, our government has come here to help children – not big people – help children celebrate Easter in this particular place. So that’s all I’m going to discuss with you today. When I come back, I’ll deal with water and electricity and the road, but right now let’s get into the business of k-i-t-e–s – kites!
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