Christmas: ‘Tis the season of sharing and nostalgic returns
Elderly women carry Christmas gifts they received from well-wishers at the PCEA Church grounds in Elburgon, Nakuru County on December 23, 2021. This Christmas season be generous towards those who are less fortunate.
Christmas means different things to different people, but no matter the case, there is something magical about it.
The season is also often accompanied by physical return to our native places of birth - for most of us, rural areas.
“My cousin sat by the bedside, a handkerchief in her hands battling with the eyes struggling to take that last look at the world... She looked at me, tears begging me to play Jesus on Lazarus! I looked at her aunt, my mother, then back at her... It wasn't until I went to the back of the house and was frozen in mid-step at the sudden sight of an ugly casket resting against the wall that part of it dawned on me...
“The memories still follow me. It was several cold Decembers ago. But it's still fresh, conserved by the Harmattan. Every year, as the winds descend from the Sahara, on its back is that past frozen like a fossil in amber. Christmas songs are like dirges ever since and the red of Christmas, the colours of pain...” once wrote Nigerian writer Uwuma Precious, remembering a Christmas of pain.
