{UAH} CHRISTMAS LANGO STYLE
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Celebrating Christmas in Uganda
(By Carolyn Jones/Hands Across Nation)
Lango tribe cooks prepare food for Christmas celebrations. (Courtesy photo)
The Lango tribe is jubilant in celebration…
What would celebrating Christmas look like in an African country? Having lived in Uganda almost full-time since 2013, Keith and Carolyn Jones have experienced several. This year their two translators, Richard Otim and Ouni Victor, willingly accepted when they were requested to describe how they celebrate in the villages. The rest of this article is a summary of their explanation of their Christmas customs.
The Lango tribe loves to celebrate many occasions: the end or beginning of a year, marriage, funerals, victory over enemies at war and child birth. When the Lango people came to know and believe in Christ, Christmas was natural to add to all the other celebrations.
When a child is born to a Lango family, there is joy, so the clan members and their neighbors gather in the family's home for three days if it's a boy, or four days if it's a girl. They bring food and drinks and everyone prepares the meals and eats together. No one does gardening or goes to work. Their reasoning is this: 1. A new life is born, 2. The number of clan members has increased, 3. God should be thanked for the gift of a new child.
As Christmas is the time when Jesus was born, the celebration has a special meaning and is a reminder of Christ's birth to the Langngi people and to the world. Months of preparation take place. Women are preoccupied with gathering of materials for brewing beer or drinks, flour and firewood. They then use cow dung to "smear" the walls of their huts and graneries so they look pleasing. The men are to ensure there is plenty of meat for Christmas day, and all the additional days they will be together. A new dress for the women family members is expected too. The Langngi people, social as they are, prepare to stay in a group of 10-20 or even more neighbors for days, or weeks, up to the full month of December.
A day or two before Christmas, the people gather at the home of one clan member who was selected to host the celebration. Women in the group brew beer and bring millet bread and cooked rice from home. The men collect and bring meat or money to buy a bull or two, and goats, which will be cooked over open fires in huge "sauce pans" by the women.
In the morning hours of Christmas, Christians of all denominations go for prayers at their local church which is often a mud hut with thatched roof.
On the afternoon or evening of Christmas, each man carries his chair or stool to sit on. The women either sit on animal skins, papyrus mats or the grass.
Prior to dinner, their hands are washed using a basin with soap and a pitcher of water, served to each person usually by a young woman.
Before drinking beverages, food is served to guests in this order: 1. Men, first elderly, then middle life men, and then young men; 2. Boys and girls; 3. Small children and mothers, 4. Anyone who has nothing – poor, sick, disabled, etc.
The food is served into one large dish, which is shared by all. The food is scooped and eaten using only the hands. Almost no one owns silverware. After eating there is a rewashing of the hands and a sprinkling of the water afterward by each saying the words "diki dok onen" which means "the same be seen tomorrow."
Drinking and dancing then goes on long into the night. This festivity could last for days or weeks up to a month to the New Year with everyone eating to their fill. The family hosting this grand celebration is happy that their home is recognized, respected, the dignity of the owner is valued and it is a pride and honor that a home is able to keep people well.
Christmas is celebrated by the Langngi people for several reasons: God was born among them, there is a spirit of unity, love and respect for one another, caring for those who have nothing, the equality of persons and the birth of the son of God is a great and loving gift from God to them.
On Christmas day, Lango Christians gather at their churches to celebrate Christ's birth with singing, dancing and praising God for his blessed gift of a savior.
Those are the words of Victor and Richard. War has had a traumatic damaging effect on the Langngi people, but they are survivors. As they recover and are learning reading, writing and math skills through Hands Across Nations, that they missed for over 20 years during the war, they are gradually returning to their cultural celebrations. You can see how a long Lango tribe celebration of Christmas might clash a bit with a Western world view of a Christmas celebration! May Christ's birth be celebrated in our homes this Christmas.
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