With a few exceptions, Christmas-related celebrations are carried out the same all over the world. Good meals, family reunions and gifts are part of Santa’s hood, including on the continent. However, in some countries, the birth of Christ is celebrated with some peculiarities. Stopovers in Liberia, Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa to discover some of them.
In Liberia, gifts are given to “Old Man Bayka”
All Liberians know the “Old Man Bayka (‘Bayka’ being a deformation of the English word ‘Beggar’ which means ‘beggar’)”, in other words the “old beggar”. He is a key figure in the Christmas festivities. He has the particularity of not giving gifts as usual at Christmas. The principle of the party is found reversed since it is rather “Old Man Bayka” which receives some. This Liberian vision of the celebrations of the nativity is the result of a mixture of local traditions and imported Christian feast. The “Old Man Bayka” is thus inspired by “dancing devils”. These latter, who are more spiritual representations than demons, “used to dance at traditional festivals” dressed “piles of brown raffia straws”, explained Max Bankole Jarrett, former journalist at the BBC and writer, in the columns of the American media NPR a few years ago.
“When the American settlers arrived in Liberia and brought their holidays, including Christmas, the devils became part of (celebrations) “, he explains, remembering the fears he inspired as a child by the” Christmas Devils “of going out for Christmas in his native Liberia where he lived until the age of 9.”I was both fascinated and scared, he continues. But other young people, boys barely older than me, skillfully and colorfully appropriated elements of this tradition and created their own copies of a modern version of the country Christmas devil. They disguised themselves as a character called “the Old Beggar” – wearing patched clothes – and walked around during Christmas time to ask for money and treats “.
In South Africa, Christmas in the sun and in “braai” mode
It is in the sun that South Africans, who are in the Southern Hemisphere, celebrate Christmas. The barbecue, the famous “braai” in Afrikans, is therefore de rigueur. It is a South African culinary tradition that is almost impossible to escape during the Christmas festivities. The South African news site Iol reported in early December that a pharmaceutical company had even developed, in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa (an organization that promotes good cardiovascular health) diet recipes to allow South Africans to stay healthy, especially during the holiday season.
Christmas, January 7th …
To commemorate the birth of Christ, it will be necessary to wait until January 7 in Ethiopia, the date on which Orthodox Christians and Copts in Egypt celebrate Christmas. In these countries, it is the Julian calendar which is authentic and not the Gregorian (which succeeded the first) which fixes December 25 as the feast of the Nativity. In Ethiopia, the Christmas feast is also called Ganna (or Genna) or Ledet. It is an occasion for meditation and pilgrimage which is accompanied by colorful festivities.