Oh how nostalgic the moments when I remember the Christmas eve during my younger days way back yonder.
On Christmas eve, a few people would meet in the house which was furthest from the local Church at 8.00pm and sing a Christmas Carol or two, then pray and finally collect gifts for charity.
People in the homestead would stand in their doorway, smiling and would sometimes sing too.They would thereafter join the Carolers as they went to the next homestead.
Needless to say, my parents, siblings and the then very shy, blushing me joined in when they came to our door.
The carolers were warmly welcomed as they walked house to house, knocking and singing in mother tongue; singing Carols such as, “O Come All Ye Faithful”; “Silent Night”; “Joy to the world”; “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”; “Once in Royal David’s City”; “O Little Town of Bethlehem”; and “Away in a Manger”.
The door-to-door walk of Carolers, who were dressed appropriately for the cold, continued until all the homesteads had been visited as they approached the Church, where different groups of jolly neighbourhood Christmas Carolers from all parts of the village would meet about an hour before midnight.
The now many worshipers would continue Caroling till midnight when they would usher in Christmas day with pomp, shouts, ululation and adoration as they sang the, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” song.
Celebration of the birth of King Jesus would continue with praise, worship, sermon, prayer and wishing each other good cheer and fortune.
It saddens that the home-to-home spread of the spirit of Christmas through hymns fell from favour.
It saddens that those times, culture and traditions have changed.
It saddens that the world of today has a far more diverse and less homogenous society than it was in Caroling’s heyday.
That brings me into the dusk of that nostalgic memory as I betray my age, gracefully.
