Online Reporter
Obey Moyo
Lifestyle Correspondent
IT’S time!
It is four days to Christmas.
Every year always has that one day. The eagerness of waiting brings the satisfaction. Yet at each turn people wait for another one to come through.
Christmas is a sun that never sets, a thread that ties the past to the future through the echoing present, full filed by the titbits of feasting and music.
For some Christmas is a return to memory. Stories of yesteryear are told to those now living them, not fantasies but a lived reality. Joys of motherhood are present, spread like the rays of the sun beaming in the early morning, in the twilight of day into the horizon of the imminent year.
Harare is abuzz with Christmas preparations. People travel from all corners of Zimbabwe to the city just to get that one thing that makes the day special. Clothes and groceries, while city dwellers keep the Mbare Musika and other bus termini alive as they send parcels to family in the rural areas.
Here is where life intersects, the shared struggles that eventually climax in unforgettable holidays of children from the city visiting their grandparents. The roads are busy and buses are laden with pressure as they transport people to the one destination.
For the people living abroad it is that one journey of the year that everyone cherishes. Visitors from South Africa, Botswana, and the United Kingdom make their way through Harare to their loved ones to share the joy of being together. This reflects on the African philosophy of Ubuntu.
Christmas in town is seen through the bright lights and decorations, but in the rural areas it boils down to the food. The traditional diets that sometimes feel like daily routines become delicacy for the family. But a drink brings it all together be it beer or ordinary beverages, the sips are pleasurable and the thirst of the year is quenched.
For the young ones it is all about the sweets, the snacks and the firecrackers. In between the fun is the taste of good music and trending fashion. It all makes sense in the mixing and mingling where joy, laughter and the attention contend. One result must be absolute, it is the memories made.
Christmas is a foreign concept brought in by the gospel crusade of the white missionaries. But at this point in time a festive season in the rural area stands as a reminder of our cultural systems when families meet. Somehow it helps to discard the pernicious acquired taste from the urban life and the diaspora.
Harare resident Tombizodwa Kwangware remembers her childhood memories of Christmas as a season for the extended family and a joyous encounter for everyone.
“That was the time when we gathered and celebrated together, we ate everything that was put on the table because of the joy of sharing,” she said.
“We would go for cattle rearing in the morning, later we would bath and wear the nicest clothes and go into the townships where we had a lot of fun and interaction until the sun goes down,” added Kwangware as she recounted the rural way of celebrating the festive.
Now that life has changed, Kwangware said that Christmas remains the same, an important holiday that brings family together.
“My husband is on his way from South Africa, we are planning to go to his rural home to be together with the entire family. Tomorrow I will fill up my car tank with fuel so that we don`t have to wait when he arrives, we want to reach the rural home early before Christmas,” she added.
It is an antidote which cures the social disconnection that society suffers when loved ones drift miles away in search of greener pastures.
University student Omega Dodo said that Christmas is not just the celebration of the birth of Christ but a time to share love and comfort as a family.
“I do not have any personal plans for Christmas, we plan as a family and celebrate it together,” said Dodo.
“We believe that family is the first heaven on earth and Christmas being the birth Christ means we have to cherish one another and spread love among ourselves. So I only look forward to being family and cement the bonds that we have during this time,” she added.
Guruve resident and retired accounts clerk Michael Chizema recalled Christmas as a time of pure joy and funfair, “back in the day we used to enjoy Christmas, we loved dancing to the music on radio and during that time the radio would be battery powered so we never wasted the power.”
“The best memory I have is that of the sweet aroma of bread that would be spread with jam and butter, they would serve it a large basket and we sat around the basket and enjoyed the bread to the very last crumb”
“Now I wish for my grandchildren to enjoy the holiday the way we did because we did not care about a lot of pleasantries, we would be satisfied with the music, the bread, rice and roadrunner chicken. We were just children and every effort that was done made us happy.”
Christmas is a symphony, a masterpiece of rhythm, ideas born out of wishes and a stroke of perfection. It is a silver lining of accomplishment that fills the basket of joy.
