By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
The December period is a very significant period of the year. Some festivities are observed within this period and this makes the festive mood to rent the air.
In this period, people from far and wide travel to the hinterlands to fecilitate with their loved ones at home. The celebrations wind up with the new year celebration which comes by January 1 every year.
To mark this period, before it gets to December 25, Christmas songs such as “Feliz Navidad” have started renting the air through various media of mass communications such as the radio and televisions. Hurray, the Christmas is here once again. The people will exclaim!.
These periods are heavy spending period. Parents buy gifts such as clothes and shoes for their children. The aged parents at home are not spared in this festive moods as they are treated to different gifts from their children based in distant locations. The same goes to relations who receive variety of gifts from their relations.
Indeed,the Yuletide is a very busy period.The road traffic within this period assumes a more complex setting as heavy vehicular movements are noticed in and outside the rural and urban centres.
Unfortunately, the fanfare that accompanies the yuletide celebrations in the previous periods may not be present this year because of economic melt down that has choked almost every facet of the economy. In the present economic situation, people are struggling to survive.
Both the earning and spending capacities of Nigerians are seriously eroded. The prices of goods and services are not in their best as they have skyrocketed to the high heavens. The cost of living is at its highrst.
At this critical point of our nations economy, a sober reflection is required. The critical question that demand urgent attention is” what is one expected to do this Yuletide for him not to box himself into a tight corner?” It is pertinent that Nigerians strive to adjust to their means to avoid landing themselves into critical situations. This they can greatly achieve by adjusting their spending lifestyle. They should learn to live within their means this festive period.
Previously, we have witnessed people drifting to immoral lifestyles in order to maintain their ego. Here, the biblical injunction admonishing us not to waste our lives seeking earthly pleasure comes into play. Unfortunately, the pains sustained in pursuit of a blissful Christmas festivities may outlive several celebrations to come.
Out may not be out of place to see young and married women engaging in promiscuity in order to buy expensive Christmas clothes. At the same breadth, some men have engaged in one form of vice or the other to enable them travel home with exotic cars or meet outrageous demands from relatives. Today, you play to the gallery with earthly materials, tomorrow the pains and guilt continue to weigh you down. It is” penny wise, pound foolish “.
One thing is sure, Christmas and New year celebrations will not cease to be celebrated if Christ tarries to come for the second time, because the negative imprints you leave behind them are not easily erased.
The scriptures admonish to choose a good name rather than silver and gold. The implication is that name outlasts momentary earthly pleasures. We si be mindful of the fact that “if wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost. But if character is lost, all is lost. So, it is better to choose a good character.
Remember, there is always a Christmas season, so do not lose your life because of one! Put the other way, the future is always constant, do not waste your life because of the present! A stitch in time saves nine!
