I'm Dreaming of a Red Christmas...

You know the song, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...." Well, in Africa we used to sing about a "red" Christmas and sometimes black. I know you're dying to know why. Well, around Christmas time it's the dry season in West Africa. So that means Harmattan winds from the desert in the north blow through where I lived. Our dirt is latterite red dirt and rocks, hence the meaning to the song, "I'm dreaming of a red Christmas..." Some days we would sing "black" because the Africans would also burn their fields during the dry season to prepare them for the planting. So along with the dusty red winds we would be blasted with black snowfall.

Now, we had an artificial tree that we would decorate, just like we would here. We would turn the lights on for a few hours at night. The tree actually spooked the Africans a little bit. They thought it was our fetish (something inhabited with spirits that we would offer sacrifices to). After Christmas was over we would take the decorations and lights off, then take the tree outside and hose it off. Red water would run off it.

The Africans celebrate Christmas very differently. For one, it's not about shopping for gifts, they don't have malls. They don't believe in Santa, obviously. It's not even a national holiday because only the Christians celebrate Christmas. The churches make a huge deal about it. They design and order a certain material that they get their outfits made out of, so they all match. It's quite cute. They get together on Christmas Eve, do plays about the Christmas story, sing and dance till day break. Then on Christmas day they have another service while some of the women prepare a huge dinner and they all eat together. (One year we were observers of the dinner being chased down and then we heard it being "prepared"--not pleasant!)

In the city some of the store merchants and restaurants try to create the holiday cheer for the tourists by putting up tacky garland and lights or painting Santas or snowmen on their store windows. That's always funny when it's 95-100 degrees outside. The really funny thing is that they leave the decorations up until about March.

So, that's Christmas in Africa for you....