Christmas Celebration in Africa

People all over the world celebrate Christmas with great fun and enthusiasm. They beautifully decorate their houses, throw Christmas parties at home, buy gifts for their loved ones, cook their favorite recipes, and engage themselves in several other activities. But do you know how Christmas is celebrated in Africa? In Africa also, people belonging to the Christian community celebrate Christmas with great enthusiasm. But in order to know more about Christmas in Africa, just have a look below!

Christmas in Africa – An Overview

As part of Christmas celebration in Africa, people belonging to the African community go to church, sing Christmas carols, exchange gifts, eat different types of food, and decorate their houses. But since majority of the Africans are not very well-off, there is a difference between Christmas in Africa and Christmas celebration in the developed countries of the world.

Exchanging Christmas Gifts: As far as exchanging of gifts is concerned, majority of the people in Africa do not have sufficient amount of money to buy gifts for their near and dear ones during Christmas time. This is because of the fact that these people are very poor and hence, they have very little money in hand for luxury spending. What is more surprising is that they do not have adequate amount of money to buy Christmas presents even for their kids. The communities which are not very well off usually exchange gifts like soap, candles, school books, clothes and other practical items.

Christmas Food: People usually have dinner with family and close friends on Christmas after coming back from church. But the food which is served is not like that in the West. In majority of the cases, the food is usually the same that is served everyday. The only difference is that the amount served is more and there are several varieties of food served.
Choirs are usually found singing and dancing for the audiences as well as the guests in the local hotels during Christmas time. Christmas dinner in Ghana is never complete without having Okra Soup and Fufu. In Zimbabwe, people have goat meat along with lots of tea, bread and jam. On the other hand, in Kenya, people usually prefer having Tuskers Beer along with roasted goat meat on Christmas.

Christmas Decorations: During Christmas, people belonging to the African Christian community usually decorate their homes within their means. The mango trees as well as the churches are beautifully decorated during Christmas time. Those who own a shop also decorate the shop fronts during Christmas. But since most of the people are very poor, they cannot decorate their houses as beautifully as is done by people in the developed countries of the world.

Thus it can be concluded that abject poverty prevalent in Africa has deprived the locals of the exuberance that is evident in other parts of the world mainly Europe, America and Australia.