Isn’t Christmas all about the decorating of the Christmas trees in every house on a wet and snowy day? In Liberia, where I am from, Christmas Day is a sunny day. When I was a child, Christmas was always a great celebration for everyone. Christmas in Liberia has a special history, religious services, and secular activities.
Christmas in Liberia has a special history. First of all, Christmas is celebrated throughout the African continent by Christian communities large and small. Christianity started Christmas around 1 AD. Christmas in Liberia is not only a time of celebrating the birth of Christ, but a great time to enjoy family and friends’ company. It is also one of the greatest celebrations in the year enjoyed widely as the celebration starts a fortnight before and continues until the arrival of the New Year. Last, Christmas in Liberia is very different to those in the United States. In the U.S, there are presents given to one another and a Christmas ham is eaten. In Africa, Christmas is celebrated without gift-giving or Christmas trees. In Liberia, a huge meal is served on Christmas; goat soup is the national soup and is served on important occasions.
But beyond Christmas having a special history, Christmas in my home country has a religious traditions. To begin with, Christmas is one of the Liberians major holidays. It is celebrated by all people of life, Christians, and less religious Muslim children. But Christians are in the center of this celebration. On the morning of Christmas, people prepare food for their families. While the parents are busy cooking Christmas meals, others are braiding hair, and getting the children ready for church. After eating Christmas meals, people dress up in Lapa; Lapa is a brightly colored and patterned cloth commonly used by Africans. Lapa are sewn into dresses and head ties. After people are dressed in their beautiful outfits, then it is time for religious services in church. When the church bells ring, families go into the church, where all the chairs are put outside and mats are spread across the floor to make room for the singing and dancing. Furthermore, when the church doors are closed, a choir warms the church with cultural gospel songs. One of the songs sung during the service is: “I will pray, I will pray today, my God has served me good, my God has served me good, I will pray, I will pray today." After the singing and testimonies, then the rest of the night is turned over to the pastor. The pastor will preach all night. By 5 in the morning everyone is asleep. Finally, around 7 the singing and dancing begins again. Church goes until noon ,then people depart from the church and go over to the mansion to the Pastor’s home to bathe, eat and go to their destinations.
After the religious services are over then it is time for secular activities. First, during Christmas children go to a neighborhood house and then visit family members and give them money to cherish their day. Children also go to the market place where there are passengers who come home to their families for the Christmas holiday, and request money from them as the passengers step out of the car. Second, people gather around the streets where there are barbeques, live music is playing and folk dancers are dancing down the streets. The dancers are elderly women who organized an association for the town and the people. They do cultural dances; they wear masks as a symbol used in most Liberian dances. It serves as a symbolic connection of the living with the ancestral spirits. It is customary for the neighbors to provide drinks and sometimes money to the musicians and dancers. The people dance and sing for the departed souls of the dead and celebrate and just for fun. As with most African dance forms, Liberian dances often reference not just the physical, but the spiritual as well. These dances are a way to preserve and transmit important stories and traditions. Finally, Christmas afternoon, people make their way to the soccer field to watch the game. Soccer (football) is the national sport of Liberia. At the sidetrack, people sell food and drinks, while one town plays against another town. This is the fun part of Christmas because people you haven’t seen for a while come to the game and meet with different people from the other town.
Each year, I miss Christmas in Liberia. Christmas in Liberia is the most stunning holiday. I miss when the streets are full of people and dancing to music. The whole town gets together to the soccer field is like ants finding their way to their habitat.Most people think of Christmas as snow and a Christmas tree, but for me it is not. Christmas has a special history, religious services, and secular activities in my country. Christmas in Liberia is a great celebration , when people enjoy each other and all the fun.
