Hello all my blog readers!

A friend sent me this article that was posted on his work's website. I really like the article. It is on the of most accurate descriptions of Christmas in Ghana that I have seen. Enjoy!

Being quite a religious country, “Bronya,” as Christmas is called in Ghana, is a big holiday for Christians and even people of other religions. The excitement starts to build weeks in advance with schoolchildren making green and red hand-crafted paper decorations and families hanging twinkling Christmas lights on the trees in their yards. Traffic is at its highest with people returning to their small towns and villages to celebrate the season with their families. Ghanaians abroad all come home bearing gifts from where they now live.

Christmas day finds everyone in their best attire, and my family spends the morning listening to the story of Christ’s birth in church and enjoying Christmas carols in the several beautiful tongues of Ghana. After the service, families return home or visit friends for huge feasts of jollof rice (stewed rice), waakye (rice and beans), yams and chicken or goat stew, fufu (pounded yams and plantain) and soup, fried plantains, and sweet desserts. Music marks the holidays with carolers in the streets and speakers blasting at holiday parties and nightclubs where merry is made at its best.

What is great is that Christmas in Ghana is not commercial. Gift giving is informal, and most children are too clever to believe in Father Christmas. Though stockings, elaborate Christmas trees with presents underneath, and purchased decorations are only seen in the homes of the wealthy, the spirit of Christmas is felt everywhere all the way through New Year, when people wish each other well by saying “Afishapa.”

Awoyaa Mensah, Internal Communications
Baltimore, MD