Despite being a very Christian country, it is so uncommercialised that I keep forgetting it is Christmas. Instead of gifts everyone gets a new Christmas outfit so the only sign of the festive season my side of the river is the hawkers walking round selling clothes and shoes. Even in Jinja it is very quiet. The run up to Christmas only begins a week before, so only in the last few days is the market area busy. Matoke (banana) sellers dominate, interspersed with the odd tree/decoration stall and motorbikes overladen with chickens.
My family only decided what to do for Christmas on the 24th. Nothing like forward planning! So instead of going to Kampala to celebrate with her family, we stayed in Jinja. Fine with me, but I was keen to experience a typical Ugandan Christmas.
Except I don’t think there is a typical Ugandan Christmas. Everyone I speak to gives me a different answer. Many people go back to their villages to see family so the towns empty in the days before, transport costs trebling as people take to the road. In town most people go to church, eat and then go out swimming or to a music festival. Although there seems to be some debate as to whether this is a Christmas Day or Boxing Day activity.
We went to church on Christmas Eve instead. My first experience of an energetic Born Again service. I was a bit taken aback at first but I got into the spirit once the carols started. So on Christmas morning we watched TV (is it actually Christmas or just a lazy Sunday?!) and I skyped the bedlam that was my brother’s house. Then we went to a friend’s house for Christmas lunch, about 30 of us from 4 generations gathered in the garden to celebrate. Like any Christmas lunch it was a calorie-laden feast. Matoke, chapatti, rice, meat of every kind and, heaven forbid in this carb-obsessed country, a few vegetables! All followed by Christmas cake of course. But very little alcohol – me and the father being the only ones to partake of a beer (yes, one. But it would have been rude to let him drink alone!) Then the children started off the singing and dancing for the night. We thankfully escaped before any pogo-ing was required.
So what did I think of my Ugandan Christmas? I enjoyed the lunch – good food and good fun. But it didn’t feel like Christmas. It wasn’t even the sunshine that made it feel wrong. It was the lack of occasion. I hate to say it but there is something to be said for the commercialisation of Christmas to get you in the festive spirit. October always seems a bit excessive to me but some pre-Christmas festivities make the day itself more special. And gift-giving isn’t only fun, it usefully fills a good chunk of the day between gorging on Christmas pudding and watching the Queen. It was great to experience how another culture celebrates Christmas. But to be honest, I prefer ours.