One of the pos­i­tive, but of­ten over­looked, at­trib­ut­es of the Trinidad and To­ba­go cul­ture is that the ma­jor re­li­gious cel­e­bra­tions are shared na­tion­al­ly, even by those who do not sub­scribe to the re­li­gion.

This is es­pe­cial­ly true of Christ­mas, recog­nised as the day on which Je­sus Christ was born, which this na­tion, along with the rest of the Chris­t­ian world, cel­e­brates to­day. But it is al­so true of Di­vali, dur­ing which time peo­ple of all faiths light deyas to cel­e­brate the vic­to­ry of light over dark­ness.

To­day, fam­i­lies of all re­li­gions are shar­ing gifts, as they lis­ten to parang or so­ca parang on their de­vices and get ready to par­take in the Christ­mas lunch, com­pris­ing pastelles, turkey, pi­geon peas with black cake for dessert and sor­rel and gin­ger beer as the non-al­co­holic drinks of choice.

This shar­ing of the cul­tur­al habits of Christ­mas was not pre­des­tined or in­evitable. Al­though Chris­tians con­sti­tute the ma­jor­i­ty of the T&T pop­u­la­tion, this coun­try is home to peo­ple who cel­e­brate di­verse be­liefs and prac­tices, shaped by its his­to­ry and the mul­ti­cul­tur­al in­flu­ences of its pop­u­la­tion.

The last cen­sus con­duct­ed in this coun­try in­di­cates that those who de­scribe them­selves as Chris­t­ian com­prised 55.2 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion in 2011. This in­cludes a va­ri­ety of Protes­tant de­nom­i­na­tions, such as An­gli­cans, Pres­by­te­ri­ans, Methodists, Evan­gel­i­cals, Pen­te­costals, and oth­er Bap­tists, as well as Ro­man Catholics. Hin­dus make up 18.2 per cent, Mus­lims ac­count for 5.0 per cent, and the “oth­er re­li­gions” and “none/not shared” cat­e­gories ac­count for 20.3 per cent. The oth­er re­li­gious group­ing in­cludes those who fol­low the Or­isha faith and Rasta­far­i­ans, as well as oth­er Amer­i­can-style Evan­gel­i­cal and fun­da­men­tal­ist church­es.

While many of the cul­tur­al habits are shared, some of the pre­vi­ous re­li­gious as­pects are not as preva­lent to­day as be­fore. Crime and the fear of crime have made mid­night mass a rar­i­ty in T&T, while the singing of car­ols by choirs in neigh­bour­hoods is less fre­quent.

And, to some ex­tent, the cel­e­bra­tion of Christ­mas this year is some­what more sub­dued than in pre­vi­ous years, part­ly as a re­sult of the geopo­lit­i­cal con­flict be­tween Venezuela and the US that is go­ing on around us.

Word from re­tail­ers around the coun­try in­di­cates that Christ­mas sales this year are no worse than in pre­vi­ous years, with some in­di­ca­tions that the Gov­ern­ment’s pay­ment of cash back­pay to those em­ploy­ees rep­re­sent­ed by the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion may have had a min­i­mal im­pact.

As we in Trinidad and To­ba­go mark Christ­mas this year, the sea­son of­fers a time­ly re­minder of the val­ues that have long bound this so­ci­ety to­geth­er - com­pas­sion, gen­eros­i­ty, tol­er­ance and a shared hu­man­i­ty that tran­scends creed and cir­cum­stance.

Christ­mas, at its core, calls for peace, good­will and love for one’s neigh­bour, val­ues that res­onate wide­ly.

It is in hold­ing fast to these ideals, and ex­tend­ing them in­to the year ahead, that Trinidad and To­ba­go can con­tin­ue to find hope, uni­ty and re­as­sur­ance, even in chal­leng­ing times.

Mer­ry Christ­mas Trinidad and To­ba­go!