When Christmas comes suddenly
Maybe this is just me and perhaps this is because following the events of December 7, I have been suspended in my air sac, licking my political wounds and observing political events unravel with a fair degree of amusement, but it appears the Christmas season just popped up without any warning or symptoms this year.
With excited foot soldiers invading certain public buildings and making bold demands ahead of the transfer of power on January 7, the high drama of a reconvened Parliament on life support, the pendulum swing of collation in certain constituencies and the political commentary around the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC’s) Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) all catching my attention, I suppose I could be forgiven for not noticing that Christmas was at hand.
Memories
Maybe my blissful Christmas ignorance had nothing to do with politics or the election outcome. Maybe quite simply, the older one gets, the more distant and therefore less attractive Christmas, with all its trimmings and traditions, becomes.
I recall with fondness the ‘bronya’ of my childhood, with jollof rice and chicken, new clothes with paper hats and plastic sunglasses, Christmas cake, Coca-Cola or Muscatella, Piccadilly biscuits, Christmas parties and an ardent belief that come Christmas, Father Christmas (a.k.a Papa Bronya) would actually bring me presents if I behaved myself.
In the past years, Christmas has seen me wearily draw long lists of who to give token cash gifts to, which I find myself editing and re-editing. Ironically, when I was a child, I yearned to be an adult so I could do what I liked, eat what I liked and sleep when I liked. Life!
Sudden realisation
It took several ‘afehyia pa’ wishes I received at the end-of-year staff durbar at work on Friday to realise that indeed, the season of goodwill to mankind was at hand. Even the Christmas décor at the ministry did not quite catch my attention.
But what really drove the point home for me was the maddening traffic in Accra on Friday evening and what it entailed. It appeared every vehicle in the capital and beyond was out there and Ghanaians were trying to grab a bargain as the weekend before Christmas rolled out.
Suddenly, I noticed the green and red decorations on many doorways and the glittering lights out there in town. I noticed a giant Caucasian Santa Claus effigy in someone’s garden, complete with a snow sleigh over his shoulder out there in the harmattan dryness and without an inch of snow to glide upon.
Now and then, a familiar Christmas carol, in English or Twi, would float into my ears from someone’s car or shop.
By the time I finally got home around 9 p.m., I was fully conscious of the fact that indeed Christmas was around the corner. Already, I gather there is a shortage of Club beer in town.
Outstanding symptoms
There are, however, a few outstanding symptoms that will seal the holiday season – the movie ‘Home Alone’ on one of our television networks, media stories about the number of children born in the various public hospitals on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day, ‘24th Night’ services to usher in the birth of Christ and the almost obligatory television interviews of market women to find out about Christmas sales.
Of course, almost routinely and as if on cue, our traders would literally wail about terrible sales even as crowds buzz around them like bees, fervently making purchases.
The narrative every year, it seems, is that sales the previous year were much better.
A friend once whispered rather confidently to me that the traders are scared to smile and proclaim soaring sales on television, lest the witches in their families take note or alternatively friends and family come making all sorts of demands.
In this season, rice, oil, tomato paste, canned mackerel, yam, chickens and hampers of all sizes and price ranges are probably the food items that probably witness the highest sales figures.
After all, in many homes, jollof with chicken is still a Christmas treat and these food items serve as decent packages to give away to one’s parents-in-law and a host of others that one cannot ignore.
‘Afehyia pa’
It is almost tempting to forget about the very essence of Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ – and all that it stands for, and rather find oneself lost in the quicksand of earthly pleasures – the parties, the nightclubs, the food and drink and generally making merry.
Indeed, many who attend Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve church services tend to migrate into the clubs and bars sometime after midnight, with their e-bibles safely buried in the recesses of their mobile phone and out of sight, thereby eliminating any guilt trips.
Far from appearing like a scolding, righteous preacher, I must immediately do a ‘mea culpa’ here. Yes, I do have a couple of lunch and dinner appointments and I might step out with a few friends to enjoy a drink in a bar and watch the crowds. I am sure I will find my way into a church on Christmas Eve.
Otherwise, I intend to rest more and leave the hard bingeing, partying and clubbing to the young folks.
After all, they have boundless energy, can dance better because they do not have rattling, hollow knee joints or creaky waists and have not been warned by their doctors to stay off certain foods and drinks.
Most certainly, it does not take them three days on painkillers to recover from one full night of partying.
However you intend to celebrate the season, dear reader, do have a happy and safe one. Afehyia pa!
Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng,
Head, Communications & Public Affairs Unit,
Ministry of Energy.
E-mail: rodboat@yahoo.com