Though Things Have Changed, This Is How We Used To Celebrate Christmas Day

Abstract

From my infanthood to youth-hood in the 1980s and 1990s, the 25th of December was treated as a great and special day. It was Nweli day, my ethnic pronunciation—thanks to my mother-tongue interference— of an English word ‘Noel’, another name for Christmas Day. Neither my parents nor village mates bothered to know what Christmas actually means. By then, the main knowledge was that it was just a big day (sikukuu), which had to be vigorously celebrated regardless of one’s ethnic nor religious affiliation, with Christians and non-Christians alike joining hands in enjoying it. It took some years for village mates to realise what Christmas day actually meant and that it had some historical roots and spiritual meaning mainly for Christians and not any other man-made religious group.