I was just seven when I first experienced it for the first time. It is a feast to bring our family members together. It's a way to reunite all my elders who were far and wide. I never seemed to know the reason and the meaning behind this feast, not until I grew up to be a man. Coming from the city to attend the feast has been my priority, and so many of my family members have to see it after a long while is the best experience ever. It's just like a long-lasting feast and something that must continue until the world we lived in subsided.
I met my grandpa as the head of the feast, as he has been the one bringing all of my family members together. No one would dare disobey his command as he was the only one left trusted in the village. Even the ones in the village are obedient and loyal to my grandpa. Shouldering family problems has been the major work of the leader (my grandpa).
When they are all together for the feast, he would ask all of his sons and daughters who are in higher places (that's how he was used to calling them all), to find a way to make way for the ones who are yet to secure job opportunities. This was how he has been making way for everyone to succeed. He said, “My family must live to make their members live to become happy”.
KEREMKSLR
I have also lived to witness my father take over the leadership as the next in line from my grandpa after his demise. He has been working so tirelessly to make the same impact his father had made before leaving the world to the other land. Maybe he had been watched and guided by his ancestors, as we believed seriously in my community at large.
My father had tried all he could to follow his father's lead by doing even more than what my grandpa was doing. He never lacked the characteristics of leadership but took the lead to a higher level of life. Since the invention of cell phones, he has been using this means to get in touch with everyone in the family, even when it's not yet time for the feast. When anyone in our family is up to the working age and can work and be serious, my dad would not have to wait, instead would connect to others in higher places just to help out.
We have lived to celebrate the existence of the feast, but now that my father is no more, no one would revive the feast or try to bring others together. I tried but failed, maybe I don't have the ability, or should I say the “charisma”, to call my family members together. This was my thought two years ago. Or perhaps civilization has taken all that matters out of every one of our family members.
I kept on waving in a boat trying to balance the tide of going deeper in bringing everyone together as it used to be, but I was still waving and even now. My younger ones have been making a statement which has been made to my father when he was still alive. I could testify to this statement, “You are the only one we trust”. There is no way I would call any of them without saying this same word to me. But come to think of it, I'm not the elder in the family. I still have many ahead of me who can put things in order. I have tried to call most of them to revive the family feast, but they kept on saying the same word “You are the one we trust”.
Likewise, I had to call home two months ago telling them to be prepared for the family feast. I have called almost everyone, both home and away. They all assured me of being present. December has been the target, as it has been before now. I'm not ready to change the colour of the feast, nor would I change the date. Everything would remain as it has been.
My younger ones who are in the village do not have anyone to help them out and so this would be the best way of making their dream come to reality. Despite not being in the village, I have vowed to help in bringing everyone together by reviving the long-awaited feast.