My name is Athman Shee a students at St. Charles Lwanga children Centre. Allow me to share how Christmas celebrations are conducted in Kenya and most especially in our school.
Our Christmas celebration is a time when people come together in remembrance of Christ’s birth, a day believed to be holy and full of a joy that lightens the whole world. The day is highly valued here in Kenya as Christians spend their nights in churches and worship places, waiting for this moment. People sing Christmas hymns such as Mary’s Boy child Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day, “Christmas, Christmas Everybody Sing” with a lot of dances and ululations (quickly repeated loud sounds, often to express joy and happiness or sorrow) especially at midnight welcoming the birth of Jesus. Christmas is very important day and people do a lot of decorations mostly in churches, but also in homes, shopping centres, supermarkets and some commodities have labels on them to wish people merry Christmas. About 70% of Kenya populations are Christians and this makes the Christians celebration lively and outstanding.
The Santa Claus tradition is not common in Kenya, instead people concentrate on family gatherings and celebration the birth of Christ. A typical Kenyan family celebrates the Christmas day, by going to mass. Some people will go for the midnight mass especially the young people while other attend the morning mass. People invite friends especially all their family members, they make a Christmas tree in their homes and then a lot of cooking takes place of chapattis, stews amongst other meals. During this festive season there are so many people in the villages.
Christmas at St. Charles Lwanga Secondary School and Children’s Centre is celebrated in a very special way and touching way. Brother Kennedy organizes a great celebration for the students in which he also invites other children outside the school who can barely afford their daily bread to celebrate together. Prior before the day the students organize songs and dances to grace the occasion. During this day a lot of cooking takes places where a special diet is prepared of chapattis, rice, green peas, roasted potatoes, beef, vegetables, juices and people eat to their fullest.
Our most sincere gratitude goes to Brother Kennedy, Inverness County Cares, Chalice and all our benefactors for their generous sacrifice in putting a smile in every child at St. Charles Lwanga.
Thank you