When I reflect on how I used to celebrate my holidays, I always feel like I have lost a portion of myself. How I used to celebrate my holidays has greatly affected my perception of today’s holiday celebrations.
I used to go traditional, but today’s holiday celebration needs me to go modern. Modernity pulls me from front and traditions pull me from behind. I grew up in a traditional setting.
Reaching a school-going age, the debate about me going to school or remaining home to keep cattle took a year plus. My parents over-debated it. My mother wanted me to be a cattle keeper but my father objected it. He wanted me to go to school after I had acquainted myself with life in pastoralism. My father won the debate. Done with all it takes to live life as a pastoralist, I was taken to school. Every time schools closed down for holidays, I could pack my luggage and leave for the village.
Arriving home, I could follow how a visitor was welcomed. I could stand a few yards away from the house, waiting for my father to come with a traditional dish full of water. He could pour water on my feet and dipped his fingers into water and smeared it on my lips. He then sprayed the remaining water in the air to call for blessings. Right at the doorstep, he could slaughter a chicken and then allow me to enter the house. My father could send a child to inform my uncles about my arrival at home. My uncles could then gather in our house to cheer up as they give thanks to the gods for protection.
One of my uncles was a spearman. He was always the last person to give blessings in his own house. All the students could assemble in his house to welcome and bless them. On Christmas day, everyone could assemble in his house for celebration. Despite gods being the ones worshipped, there was a point where spearmen and priests could meet. They could meet at calling the heavenly God to solve their earthly problems. I do not know whether or not calling God angers gods. Spearmen have an answer to it.
I used to celebrate Christmas and New Year in my uncle’s house of god. When he took me inside the house, I used to feel like I was renewed. I used to feel younger and energetic. I used to feel blessed and determined. I used to foresee my future. Every dream I had seemed too close to achieve. I was becoming a spearman myself. In the evening, I could join the members of our family around the bonfire. I could listen to ancient stories, especially the stories of migration for settlement. I had a strong passion for the history. I had wanted to become a historian, little did I know God had decreed that I should become a medical doctor.
When people are around the bonfire, the conversation takes long. But what makes me amused is the strength of the firewood burning in the bonfire. It does not burn the way firewood for cooking burns. It has a special way of burning. I could listen to old people until I slept unknowingly. Sometimes, I could wake up in our room in the morning and I could not remember how I got there. When I returned to school after Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, I could feel like I was reborn. I even used to look different in the eyes of my schoolmates. Any time I developed an interest in something or someone, I could win it with ease.
I could feel too blessed to bless others. My classmates even felt suspicious of me. They labelled me a future spearman. This was how I used to celebrate Christmas and New Year. But when I went for tertiary studies, I was too far to return to our village. So, I began adapting to the modern celebrations of Christmas and New Year. It is completely different. I never feel the same.
Despite being baptised, the tune to which Christmas and New Year celebrations are done does not attract me much. The tune is not as attractive as it was. But I should not forget the fact that the traditions are fading away. Even if I go traditional with Christmas and New Year celebrations now, it would not be the same. Things have greatly changed.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.