‘Mary did you know that your baby boy…’
‘Jingle bells Jingle bells Jingle all the way…’
‘Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad…’
It’s that time of the year folks we’ve all been waiting for. We humans get a time to celebrate while our fellow animals feast on the massive remains not forgetting the plants that feed on our waste: at least every creature is left happy.
However, I come to wonder how this day came to be. We all know Jesus was not born on the 25th of December. Some wise men just sat down and made some hypothetical theories that amicably justified the existence of this day. I want to thank them all for coming up with such a remarkable idea. Nevertheless, they’ve never told us how we should celebrate this day. From what I can gather, this is Jesus’ birthday for Christ sake we should be giving him gifts and all the good stuff. I don’t want to be held in contempt for the little knowledge I have or by the same token, the more of it but I think sharing with others is a worthy gift for Jesus Christ.
How do you celebrate Christmas? Lemme rekindle some Christmas musings.
Long ago in the days of our childhood Christmas was synonymous with being bought new stuff. Our parents would walk us to the nearest shops, boutiques and markets where we got ourselves new footwear and outfits. The smiles that would then grace our countenance was unfathomable. No one felt the setback posed by the crowded streets, pushing and brushing each other’s shoulders. Some parents would even carry their kids on their shoulders as precaution. We would then don our marvelous attires and join friends and family in amusement parks to just make the most of the day. Opportunistic fellas would offer to paint our faces to mimic superheroes and cartoon stars or sell us toys and other eye-catching stuff.
Then we grew older and our parents grew richer. We visited various magical sceneries. Some went to Mombasa, oh my goodness the beach! We enjoyed the salty waters of the ocean as it sanitized our skins, we buried ourselves in the white sands and looked like ghosts, we ate coastal cuisines: tasty indeed. We tried some new foods, some turned out to be extraordinarily luscious while others were too strange to even taste good. We took pictures as the wind blew away our loose apparels making us look like angels. We took as many pictures which are now archived in some old album. Have you ever gone back to that album? We never forgot to come back with some seashells, starfish and other wonderous things we picked just to hang them on our walls.
Then we matured and started planning our own rendezvous and attending gigs. Some stay back home enjoying mama’s dishes while listening to some Pentatonix. We drink, we joke, we laugh, we play, we do a couple of the a-thousand-and-one things people do in such settings.
This is 2020! We have stayed indoors for the better part of the year. This year defied the norm and custom-made itself to be whatever it is. I will not say much but I think Sauti Sol crowned the successive streak of wonders. The virus has taken away the glamour of Christmas. The environment is struggling to adapt to Christmas because we were all on survival mode.
However, we can still make Christmas in a small way. We can listen to Pentatonix, we can still meet some few friends and have a mini blast, we can still lighten our homes with the twinkling Christmas trees but most of all we can make someone happy. We can reach out to that one person who is impoverished, that one person with a hollow soul, that one person who has nothing to hold onto but their head when they’re caving in stress: sometimes a gesture is all they want. Yes, we can do this. With all said and done, how you spend your Christmas absolutely rests on you.
I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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Feel free to comment on how you feel about this year’s Christmas.
Manenoz 