Compliment of the season to everyone in the Hive Learners community and the Hive blockchain as a whole. It's the seventh day in December and I won't deny the soothing ambiance the festive season is giving me already. The weather is getting colder and I have been sleeping soundly lately, thanks to Harmattan.
People are gradually setting up their Christmas decorations and it's kind of certain that no matter what the condition of the world is, celebrating Christmas is just inevitable.
Some weeks ago, my neighbour complained about how things were and her intention to celebrate Christmas in a very small way. I tried assuring her that Christmas would be great but she made it clear that even if someone gave her money for the celebration, she would use it for other things. It would interest you to know that she is the only person who has mounted Christmas lights at the entrance of her apartment and she has brought the idea of a compound party. I don't know what changed but it's not a new thing to me because I have said that countless times in the past but ended up elaborately celebrating Christmas. After all, the season has its way of putting someone in the mood to celebrate whether you like it or not.
I mentioned in my previous post that I have a fixed Christmas routine as my family and it's like a traditional thing for us. I thought about it deeply and realised that I haven't celebrated one Christmas away from my family, we are always together especially on Christmas to wine, dine and have fun together.
It would be okay to call our coming together a tradition because it happens always. Sometimes I have imagined what Christmas would look like for me if I were opportune to leave Nigeria, there will definitely be things that would make Christmas very exciting abroad but I will definitely miss the family gathering during Christmas. I once shared these thoughts with my family and they felt the same as well. My immediate brother said he would always make video calls throughout the day if there was no way for him to join the family and that would make you understand how we cherish the tradition.
We have learned to stick to each other from childhood and things have remained that way even after decades. My very close friends know that I don't honour invites on Christmas Day because it's a Family Day but people are welcome to celebrate with us, we are very accommodating as a family.
Another inevitable thing that we do as a family during Christmas is eating pounded yam. It might be funny but I grew up to know this in the family and I can't tell how long my parents have been doing it. My dad is a chronic Ekiti man and he is inseparable from that food, I don't know if he still eats it though.
We consider pounded yam as a special food even though that's not the only time we eat it. The local food tastes differently with those fat chicken meat with egusi soup, I doubt if you will understand what I mean until you have tasted this delicacy.
Pounded yam holds a special place on Christmas and I can't remember the Christmas we didn't eat this because even if there is no money for chicken, we will still eat our pounded yam with Vegetable and Cowskin.
These Christmas tradition has turned out to be a kind of legacy for the family and I believe when we start having kids, they will definitely embrace this peaceful and simple Christmas celebration. If they choose otherwise, I don't have issues but I don't see myself doing anything other than what I have shared in this post.
