Pleasant greetings to you all.
The coming of the Holy week is a festival that we gave so much thought and pomp to just like Christmas as it significance held eternal value. Back in the day as a child, I recalled that we treated the Holy week as Holy up until Easter Sunday.
Prior to the Holy week, my family would also engage in the Lent fast for forty days but I was not very consistent with mine. Then after the period of Lent, we would pertake in several programs organized by our church. These programs were held to commemorate the happenings in Israel that formed the Holy week.
I recall watching lots of drama presentations of the “passion of the Christ” acted out by the youths of our church. It was truly a splendid time to behold. Then comes Easter Sunday and the bubbling, merry making and celebrations would begin but not without first attending church service, hehe. My family alongside other Christian families would be dressed beautifully for church service. This was a part we never joked with in my family back in the day.
My family and I would all come back from service to wine and dine and I think this was the best part of it all. We shared our food and drinks with our neighbours and the merry making continued till Easter Monday after which all returned to normal.
Now as an adult, not much has changed. I still uphold my family's values and customs during this Holy week but I am still not consistent with observing Lent , at least for now, hehe.
The only notable change for me in my adulthood is that there are no more large gatherings and visits. I don't share cooked food but I give out raw food ingredients like rice, spaghetti, macaroni and sweet potatoes. This is due to the high rate of insecurity. A lot of families have been implicated because they shared food but someone who ate the shared food ended up dying. So I am very cautious about giving out cooked meals.
Family gatherings during this period have also reduced greatly due to my siblings and I working in different cities of the country. Even though we still find ways to communicate with ourselves during this period. It isn't like in my childhood when we all sat together at the table to eat.
Recalling these memories was nostalgic however, reality calls.
Thank you all for reading.
Images used are mine.