Christmas is here again

Preparations intensify in Douala as December 25th draws near.

Every year the entire universe observes December 25, Christians Day, the day Christians believe Jesus Christ was born. This month happens to be the last in the year. As such, many people end the year in feasting. This brings in many changes in towns and most especially in shops. As early as November shops start changing their looks, Managers start putting aside old goods or “out of season goods” replacing them with flowers, toys, cloths, parcelling papers, etc. The towns start taking a different look too.

In Douala, there are preparations for end-of-year celebrations for children in their schools, the towns get lighted with twinkling Christmas lights, public gardens get lighted and the trees decorated. As 25th December draws nearer, preparations hot up. Parents get into the market to buy the variety of toys of different categories, material, shapes, sizes and colour which are strewn all over the place. Parents buy Christmas trees to decorate their homes, flowers to beautify the Christmas tree and the home. Preparations do not only imply decorations, clothes and toys but food as well.

It is also considered a period the family comes together to share a common meal. The common food stuff in the markets during this period is rice, chicken, pork. These are now common in all markets in Douala.

Christmas preparation in Douala is not different from that of other towns But Douala has its peculiarities. At marché de fleur, flowers, both fresh and artificial are sold. This is a centre where flowers grown in Cameroon are sold. Most of the flowers come from the South West, Njombe-Penja and the Centre Province. But here one can also find artificial flowers. In the town there are other supermarkets which sell imported flowers both natural and artificial. Here they do bouquets of a mixture of both natural and artificial flowers.

There are special flowers sold only during Christmas. They are imported only in this season as well as there are people who buy flowers in their homes just during the season. This they believe is a period of peace and love and flowers reflect that.

Talking about food, the people of Douala are specialists in preparing miondo and ndole. In times like these the women who prepare miondo do make their profits because they receive orders for a large quantity, may be for home consumption or some celebrations. People in Douala care little about rice and chicken sauce, but their principal meals are miondo and ndole as well as egusi pudding and miondo. These are the meals a Douala man will fill honoured to offer his guests at Christmas.
EFFA TAMBENKONGHO