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The Evolution of Christmas in African Culture

 

Egyptian god Osiris

The African Culture more so the tribes that lived within the Nile valley had designated the days from December 22 to December 25 to celebrating the rising of the sun. This is stemmed from a time during the winter solstice where you have longer nights and days during 22 and on the 25 you would observe longer days than nights. They called it the day of the rising sun, this was also associated to the birth of the Egyptian god Osiris also known as Ra. During the roman era. roman Catholicism spread its way through roman colonization of the known world. This was during the time of the roman pope Julius I around 350CE , at this time there was no set date for Christmas as it shuffled between January, March, April, May but as the romans came into contact with the tribes along the Nile valley they met with the ideology of Ra and the rising sun. This resonated with the ideas of roman Catholicism and they settled with this days from December 22 to December 25 to mark the death and rebirth of Jesus Christ


Traditional African Woman

For the African Culture more so along the east African region they had not come into contact with majority of the European tribes, the calendar system was different. They used the lunar calendar as compared to other societies that used the Georgian calendar which had fewer months. The culture was also different as each African community had its own creation story. For the kikuyu community God made Gĩkũyũ and placed him near Mount Kenya at a place called Mũkũrwe wa Gathanga God saw that he was lonely and gave him a wife, Mũmbi. Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi were blessed with nine daughters, but no sons. The daughters’ names, arranged from the eldest to the youngest were as follows; Wanjirũ, Wambũi, Njeri, Wanjikũ, Nyambũra, Wairimũ, Waithĩra, Wangarĩ, and the last one was Wangũi. 

Their culture had no mentions of Jesus or any Relation to the Nile Communities with their Egyptian gods so Christmas was not part of their yearly celebrations. The worship of God had no specific dates set aside but was rather honored during certain markers such as birth, marriage, harvest, among others. This however changed with the European Occupation Africa that brought along Christianity. Adoption of the Religion was enforced in education system and believers were given perks such as healthcare and employment among the British Settlers. Hence came the adoption of the holidays within the religion such as Easter and Christmas. 

African Woman Cooking

Christmas in the African communities that adopted it was however interpreted differently as these communities set it aside as a day to visit their rural homes to cook together and drink together. To this day majority of the household honor this day to spend with families and visit children`s home and prisons to also spread the festivities. The question still lies, whether or not to continue honoring these holidays imposed on us knowing of their origin?



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