Mashramani is an Amerindian word which means “celebrating after cooperative work”. This festival is an annual festival that celebrates Guyana becoming a Republic in 1970. Within the weeks leading up to Mashramani, the schools in the Regions participated in Regional competitions including dance, hip hop, costumes, poems and calypso. The groups that get first in the Region then travel to Georgetown to participate in the National Competition. My school participated this year in dance (age 8-10) and calypso (age 5-7 and 8-10). Both calypso groups got second in the Region and our dance group got first. They then traveled to Nationals where they placed second in all of Guyana!
After the competitions, the schools (at least in our Region) participated in a road march where the students and teachers made floats and costumes to perform and dance around in. Our school got first in the costumes of the march for the primary schools. During the actual day of Mashramani (February 23rd ) big towns held parades of their own but of course the biggest parades and celebrations were in Georgetown, Linden, and Lethem.
