Re-Living Christmas: Cherished moments and memories #18

Towards Christmas Eve.

I would be bone tired and exhausted

From running errands,

And full of excitement and anticipation

At the same time.

The errands came in a steady string,

All screaming ‘Urgent! The house is on fire!’ —

Bring this,

Watch over this,

Run to Uncle so and so and pass him this message

Take this to Grandma,

Run to the market and buy this,

Bring that big sufuria,

Take this knife to the men outside,

Run to the neighbor and borrow an axe…

Ad infinitum

And, at times, terribly annoying,

Especially when I was interrupted

From hearing adults trade juicy stories!

But then, there would also be some

Joyful anticipation,

Of what was to come that evening

And the following day.

Christmas Eve, as I remember it,

Was about the only day of the year,

When we had Mass at midnight,

And when I was allowed to sleep past ungodly hours.

Going to church at Midnight

Was a rare spectacle

That no kid ever wanted to miss —

The altar would be specially decorated

With lights and imagery of the birth of Jesus,

And the accompanying song and dance

Would just be out of this world!

It was like going to the Village Open-Air-Cinema —

The ones that came to the village only once a month,

And where naughty boys whipped other kids

Or threw rotten eggs to the screen

To scare us off.

Attending church at Midnight was such a rare event

That I would be so angry with myself,

And my sisters,

If I ‘accidentally’ fell asleep before midnight

And no one woke me up, to go.

I think the event gained more notoriety

From this fight that would ensue

Inside of us, kids,

As we tried to beat exhaustion and sleep, to stay awake.

It was always a glorious fight

In which, more often than not,

My heart and mind

Got short-changed

And lost

To my body.

* Follow us in this “Re-living Christmas’ series, to catch a glimpse of cherished moments and memories of our time.