Tag: Christmas

• Travels, shopping and celebrations

As Nigeria’s markets bustle with festive shopping and the roads fill with eager travellers, the essence of Christmas in Nigeria remains unmistakable. Despite the country’s economic challenges, the spirit of resilience, unity, and joy endures. Nigerians may face high prices and crowded streets, but the nation continues to stand united, determined to celebrate the season. Whether through family reunions, festive meals, or the joy of giving and receiving, Christmas in Nigeria is a testament to the strength and spirit of its people—who, no matter the odds, continue to cherish their traditions, uphold their festive customs, and spread joy, DAMOLA KOLA-DARE reports

At Christmas, Nigeria’s markets come alive with a vibrancy that reflects the nation’s enduring festive spirit, even amid the most challenging economic conditions. Despite rising costs and inflationary pressures, the festive mood remains undeterred. The annual hustle and bustle, especially in the markets, signal the beginning of the Yuletide season, as Nigerians scramble to secure everything from food and clothes to home appliances and luxury goods. The surge in activity began last week, and as the days progress towards Christmas, the volume of shoppers continues to intensify.

In the busy commercial hubs like Oshodi, Lagos, the atmosphere is palpable—crowded walkways, packed buses, and even the overhead bridges are often lined with traders offering their wares. The entire area resembles a beehive of activity, with customers navigating through throngs of people to purchase goods in anticipation of the season. As Nigerians brace for the festive period, this scene is mirrored in other parts of the country, from Kano in the North to Port Harcourt in the South, as markets across the nation echo with the sound of transactions.

Despite the challenges brought on by inflation and high costs, Nigerian resilience shines through. There is an undeniable determination among the population to celebrate the season regardless of economic constraints. Shopping for Christmas essentials—food, clothes, gifts, and household items—remains as important as ever. Though the prices of some goods have spiked considerably, especially for poultry and foodstuffs, Nigerians have found ways to persevere. From Lagos to Abuja, shopping continues unabated as families ensure that Christmas joy is shared, even if it means making difficult financial sacrifices.

As with most African cultures, food plays a central role in the Nigerian Christmas celebration. It is, after all, a time when families and friends gather to share sumptuous meals, and the demand for food items skyrockets. Rice, chicken, tomatoes, groundnut oil, and other cooking essentials are in high demand during the Christmas period. For example, a chicken can now cost anywhere between N20,000 to N40,000, while a large live turkey can set one back N70,000 or more. Despite the soaring prices, Nigerians remain determined to keep the food tradition alive. Christmas, after all, is not just about gathering around the table—it’s about ensuring that all are welcome to partake in the feast.

Alongside food, drinks—both alcoholic and non-alcoholic—are also a significant part of the holiday celebrations. Whether it’s palm wine, soft drinks, or imported liquors, beverages complement meals and foster a sense of togetherness. Many families take great care in selecting drinks that add a special touch to the festive gathering, ensuring that every meal is paired with the perfect beverage.

For many Nigerians, the Christmas season also provides the perfect excuse to upgrade their wardrobes. Clothes, shoes, and accessories fly off the shelves as families prepare to look their best for the holidays. Parents often focus on purchasing new outfits for their children, while adults seek stylish attire for themselves. This seasonal shopping creates a spectacle in the markets as people try on clothes, select new shoes, and finish off their festive looks with accessories. The desire to look one’s best extends beyond clothing. Beauty products—such as makeup, skincare items, and hair treatments—are also in high demand. With numerous social gatherings and end-of-year parties, many Nigerians take extra care to ensure they look their best. The cosmetics market sees a rise in sales during this period, with both luxury and everyday beauty products flying off the shelves. From luxurious facial creams to popular makeup kits, the beauty industry thrives during the festive period, as Nigerians prepare for the holiday season with an eye on both beauty and glamour.

Christmas shopping in Nigeria isn’t just limited to food and fashion. The festive period offers the perfect opportunity to upgrade home appliances and living spaces. Many families take advantage of year-end sales and promotions to purchase new kitchenwares, washing machines, refrigerators, and smaller home appliances. For many, it’s a time to refresh the home, often with the aim of preparing for the New Year. The rise in demand for furniture and home gadgets reflects Nigerians’ desire to start the new year with upgraded homes. In line with these upgrades, Christmas decorations become an important part of the festive rush. Artificial Christmas trees, colourful lights, wreaths, and other ornaments flood the market, and Nigerians eagerly stock up on these items to decorate their homes. This annual tradition is not just about adding sparkle to homes but also about creating the perfect setting for family gatherings and holiday celebrations. The sight of homes adorned with festive decorations helps foster a cheerful atmosphere that is synonymous with the season.

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As December draws to a close, travel becomes an inseparable part of the holiday experience in Nigeria. Christmas travel brings with it an air of excitement, as families look forward to reuniting with loved ones, whether in nearby cities or in distant villages. For many, Christmas represents an opportunity to go home, often making long and sometimes arduous journeys to their ancestral hometowns. With limited infrastructure, travel during Christmas can be a difficult and sometimes uncomfortable affair. Roads become congested with travellers, making the journey an often frustrating experience, especially in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. However, despite the challenges, the Christmas rush is an enduring tradition in Nigeria. The highways are lined with buses, cars, and lorries, each carrying families, gifts, and hope for the season’s reunions.

For many, the journey to their hometowns is not just about reaching a destination—it’s an emotional homecoming, where the anticipation of seeing family members, sharing meals, and reliving childhood memories adds to the significance of the journey. The holiday season is, for many Nigerians, a time for nostalgia, joy, and reflection. Whether by bus, car, or train, the roads are packed with eager travellers making their way home.

To ease the financial strain on Nigerians who often face the burden of exorbitant travel costs, President Bola Tinubu has recently announced free nationwide train services from December 20 to January 5, 2025. This initiative, aimed at reducing the strain on road transport, is expected to make the journey home a little more affordable and a lot more comfortable. Furthermore, the government has worked with key transport stakeholders to reduce interstate transport fares by 50 per cent for the duration of the holiday period. This relief is timely, given the general financial strain that many Nigerians are under. With fuel prices now lower, combined with the reduction in transport fares, Nigerians can look forward to an easier holiday season. The initiative is expected to lighten the load on road travel and make family reunions more accessible to those who would otherwise struggle with the high cost of transportation.

A journey through festivities

Christmas travel in Nigeria is more than just about reaching a destination—it is a sensory adventure. It is an opportunity to experience the country’s rich cultural diversity. Each region brings its unique festive touch, from traditional foods to local holiday customs. The Yoruba people in the Southwest enjoy pounded yam, egusi soup, and jollof rice, while in the Southeast, the Igbo people feast on ofe oha and roasted goat meat. In the North, Hausa-Fulani communities indulge in suya and jollof rice.

Christmas travel gives Nigerians the chance to sample the best of their country’s cuisine, whether from a roadside grill or a lavish family feast. The food is as diverse as the country’s people, each region adding its own flavour to the Christmas table. Festive decorations, too, vary from region to region. In Lagos, the city dazzles with a colourful array of twinkling lights and decorated Christmas trees. Smaller towns and villages also showcase their holiday spirit, with local traditions adding a unique flair to the celebrations. Hand-painted wooden signs bearing Christmas greetings and local drum music add an authentic touch to the festivities.

While Christmas travel is a time of joy and celebration, it is also fraught with challenges. The influx of travellers exacerbates existing issues like traffic congestion, poor road conditions, and safety concerns. Accidents, often caused by reckless driving or bad road infrastructure, are a recurring problem during the festive season. Despite these challenges, the holiday spirit prevails. Nigerians display resilience, patience, and camaraderie as they navigate the difficulties of the season. For those who can afford it, flying has become an increasingly popular option, avoiding the challenges of road travel. Nigerian airlines such as Arik Air and Air Peace report a surge in passengers during the Christmas period, as travellers seek a faster, more comfortable way to reach their destinations. While the airports can be chaotic during this peak season, for many, the convenience of flying outweighs the hustle and bustle of road travel.

What is prayer? What does it entail and how does it work? How must one pray? What does one pray for?

Almost anyone asked these questions will thump his chest and affirm he knows. But you can bet that the answers that might be proffered would be as many and varied as the countless creeds on earth along with their faithful.

Reading ‘Make Your Work A Prayer’ by Olusola Adeyegbe, however, challenges the reader to reexamine his and other familiar notions  and practices of prayer. Atheists, agnostics and all those who fall under the canopy of being ‘freethinkers’ will also be shocked to discover that the concept is more simple, natural albeit living process than the picture of formal episodic religious rites they ostensibly find unappealing!

Concise, lucid and well-illustrated, the book of just 54 pages offers  comprehensive and widely ramified enlightenment about what true and effective prayer is and how one may and should set about it with the certainty of it being granted. More than that, it reveals why and how prayer is so crucial, in fact, ineluctable, if man must enjoy a wholesome, happy life and fulfill his earthly goals and higher purpose.

With rare candour and impeccable logic, the author deconstructs the prevailing views about prayer, arguing convincingly that it is not: a babel of prolonged, noisy verbal pleas, ‘begging’ for fulfillment of selfish desires, invocation of evils on perceived enemies, decreeing or commanding the Almighty to sanction personal wishes under false cloak of humility, contrition and supplication accompanied by self-denial/deprivation (fasting), recitation of some specific words and/or a routine religious exercise!

Instead, prayer, he writes, is reverence, reverence of the Almighty Creator and Source of all beings which could be expressed at solemn moments dedicated for the purpose or be spontaneous. But in reality , the author asserts, man prays with and through his everyday activity. The thoughts, words and deeds issuing from him, be they good, evil or bad, draw from and shape themselves into reality  with Divine Power streaming through creation in synergy with a set of Natural Laws also called Creation Laws. Thus, what he thinks, say  do at every moment of his life have far more reaching effect than multitudes of words and hours spent in so -called praying!

Whichever form, however, prayer, Adeyegbe maintains requires devotion, concentration and purity in large measure. If it is an intentional converse with the Creator it is best conducted in an idyllic, solemn and secluded ambience. This will enhance concentration, focus and energy which are conditions necessary to propel the prayer to  the throne of Grace  where all granting comes. The supplicant can count on light and bliss springing forth and suffusing his life, even when he has been weighed down by suffering.

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In seven crisp, curt and yet loaded chapters, Adeyegbe explains that prayer is not about imposing one’s wishes or desires on the Almighty, but humbly aligning  his volition, thoughts, words and deeds with Divine Wisdom  embodied and expressed in the Laws of Creation that activate and regulate all activities and processes in the universe.

Principal ones among the Laws are: the Law of sowing and reaping; Law of like things attracting their kindred and Law of spiritual gravitation which ordains that pure and light things ascend while impure and heavy ones sink! Every activity of man is charged and takes effect through the powers of these laws which are incorruptible and operate inflexibly, impartially and with perfect consistency and accuracy. Thus, they are uninfluenced by men’s flattery, guile intellectual calculations, hypocrisy and superficiality , but ensure that man gets exactly what he deserves and deserves what he gets in life, according to how he adjusts himself to the nature and dictates of these Laws carrying out the Will of the Almighty. Light, loving and positive thoughts, words and actions, therefore, produce abundance of similar effects  without any needing to “bribe” the Almighty with any sycophancy or fawning gesture. Since the Almighty is an embodiment of Goodness, a man with impure inner life and full of evil deeds cannot hope to reap blessings no matter how much he exerts himself in ‘praying’. According to the author, therefore, man’s prayers can only be heard and fulfilled when the content and intents or goal reflect or align with the manifest nature of God – infinitely good, perfect, pure, loving and just.

This presupposes an understanding of and trust in God, which automatically compel him to strive to adjust his ways in accordance with the Divine Will and which in effect, guarantees his welfare and protection from harm, even without asking. Life for him becomes one of perpetual thanksgiving, as he experiences one miracle after another, declares the author. In fact, happiness is an expression of gratitude, which in a sense is a form of prayer. Adeyegbe took pains to unpack how this is so in the book.

In addition, he gives useful tips for efficacious prayers, stressing that it must be approached with humbleness, purity of thoughts and devoid of distractions, manifold request list, a sense of entitlement, bargaining and expectations of predetermined outcome. The form fulfillment will take should be left to the Most High, Who alone knows what is in the overall best interest of the supplicant, the author advises. In fact, he cautions man not to feel disappointed when his wish appears not to be answered as the ultimate fulfillment, even though different, often  invariably turns out to be the right one and in his overall best interest. This, man himself always acknowledges with delight and gratitude.

Apart from this, the book warns that  ‘praying’ is useless unless it is  impelled by deep and earnest inner stirring, from within the soul. Without such serious urge a prayer lacks vitality, is spiritless and of no value! Praying is being linked to and drawing from streams of light, power and strength to enable man fulfill what he is praying for.

Drawing copiously from the scriptures, and other sacred knowledge of other religions and ‘In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message of Abd-ru-shin, which, he repeatedly emphasizes as the principal source of his own understanding, Adeyegbe throws light on these and other issues including the rationale for the institution of special hours of prayers such as in the Islamic religion; significance of the sacred name, God, ‘Amen’ etc and the implications of their abuse and misuse by mankind not only in invocations but also frivolously in everyday conversations. The book  reveals  the right approach and attitude to adopt in addressing the sublime names and tapping from the beneficial energy of their true  essence.

Among other relevant subjects the book treated is  intercessory prayer. It describes how it works saying the effect is also not arbitrary but depends on the worthiness or otherwise of the one for whom it is intended which can either facilitate or block fulfillment.

The summary of this remarkable work is that man has little or no need to be anxious or beg for anything as long as he lives and works in harmony with the Laws of God. The author illustrates this with the example of an obedient child who is s thus pleasing to his parents. He is assured of their protection, ample provision and care at all times. His exposition on the  true essence of the Lord’s Prayer which affords the reader a unique and more profound appreciation of the interpretation of this age-old piece of prayer underscores the point further. Rather than a set of rote lines and verses, the reader sees the Lord’s Prayer in a totally new light, going beyond being a mere piece of prayer to  being the good gospel itself in capsule! A masterpiece composition that at the same time offers the one praying the “key to the Kingdom of God”. The author teases the reader to explore and unearth the tresures it contains, giving just a gist. To wit: that man is actually on earth to put to use his endowments to serve the Owner and Bestower, His Creator. This means to work with his gifts, abilities and slumbering virtues to transform his environment into a replica of God’s kingdom, Paradise for his benefit and that of his fellow creatures. The pursuit of this goal in various aspects of his life – career, business, family affairs, relationships brings him both spiritual and earthly benefits. Hence the words, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all other things shall be added unto you,” shall be fulfilled.

Thus, it is detrimental when man prioritize mundane goals and desires – wealth, fame, positions, pleasure above requests that can aid his spiritual development and ascent, as, in accordance with the Law of spiritual gravitation, such predilection ties him more to earthly things which may hinder, deter and even frustrate his spiritual upliftment and timely escape from the troubled world of matter facing imminent disintegration, into the safe, luminous realms of eternal bliss, Paradise.

The strength of this modest albeit profound book  lies not only in its visually appealing cover design, but also in its wealth of practical illustrations and analogies from everyday life. They are so simple, clear and easy for the reader to grasp and relate with. Though a lawyer, this book reveals Adeyegbe as being both a  teacher and preacher,  judging by the pedagogic overtone and palpable evangelical undertone of his discourse.

Coming at a time when the world is in a state of confusion on matters spiritual, this book offers clarity and authoritative information and education that can guide the earnest seeker through the maze of falsehood, ignorance and darkness to victorious knowledge in the Light of Truth. In it you have a Christmas present worth more than gold! I sincerely recommend getting copies for yourself and for your loved ones too.

During the Christmas season, even those who do not know Jesus love the lights and songs. And yet to many, this is all what Christmas is about. Even for Christians who genuinely love Jesus, the holiday bustle drowns out the true meaning of the season: Christmas is God’s yearly reminder for sinners to come out of the darkness and into the light. The birth of a child signals a new beginning. This new beginning is not primarily for the parents but the child.

The book The Saviour Is Born offers lessons from events around the birth of Jesus Christ is written by Ayodeji Jegede, a pastor/ prolific author reveals the truths about the significant people who were the chosen vessels before, during, and immediately after the birth of Jesus Christ. Much more, it will open your eyes to the truth that you are one of them in the place you presently occupy. The book says that your present duty post can become a powerful tool for destiny fulfillment if you learn lessons from the stories of these ordinary and everyday people. The book is recommended for everyone who believes in God and those who are yet to. The book also offers a fresh, rigorous, and devotional exploration of the birth and infancy narratives of Jesus Christ. It is positioned around the accounts detailed in Matthew and Luke, each chapter exposits the biblical text in a chronological order exploring its exegetical meaning, Old Testament fulfillment and ancient customs.

In addition to exegetical commentary, each chapter concludes with pastoral reflections. The book also tells us that the birth of Jesus began the journey to a new beginning for mankind. It was the inception of the turning point to divine salvation in human history. The long awaited Saviour (Messiah) has been born in manger in Bethlehem. God has made a proper preparation of retinue of functionaries and Events were unusual yet unforgettable.

Written by a pastor and biblical scholar, The Savior Is Born is intended for any Christian who wants to dive deep into the passages of Scripture that convey the Christmas story. It is also a valuable resource for church small groups and pastors who want to lead their congregations in a deeper understanding of the Advent season.

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The Savior Is Born, focuses on finding, knowing and following the teachings of Jesus Christ. The author anticipates the book will reach millions around the country as people share and distribute the book during the month of December, when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

“We live in a world where the power and influence of God in our daily lives are downplayed and dismissed and where the need for a Savior is ignored and even mocked,” said the author in an interview with The Nation. “For those who are devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, there has never been a greater need for us to profess our faith in our Savior, privately and publicly.”

Get ready for spiritual encounters that will take you from one level of glory to another in that seemingly ordinary location. This book is recommended for everyone who believes in God and those who are yet to. You can get your copy from all the leading bookstores nationwide.