It begins with church, then a large meal, music and dancing, followed by hours and hours of drinking. Christmas Day in Katine is not all that different from Christmas in Kent.
”After eating the meal, I go straight away to drink,” said Francis Okia (32) who laughed as he described his plans: ”My wife and children will drink tea. I will drink ajon [beer] and waragi [spirit].”
Okia will spend much of Tuesday and the following week at a ”drinking club” with 12 of his friends in Katine, in rural north-east Uganda. They have each placed money into a kitty, some of which has already been used to buy animals, providing the rare luxury of meat. Most of the cash, however, has been saved for alcohol, which will be made by members. ”We bring a radio, get drunk and dance so much to local music,” said Okia.
”Like this,” added his friend, John Emalu, laughing as he began to shake his legs and waist, moving his hands up and down while turning his body in a circle.
As the friends joked, the sun began to set over Katine village. Nearby, small groups of people huddled around clay pots, sucking up ajon, which is brewed from millet. Others held plastic bottles filled with waragi, a clear spirit produced locally from cassava.
Not all the families enjoy such festivities, however. In fact, there are two types of Christmas in Katine: one for those who drink and one for those who abstain for religious reasons.
Mary Amulo, a Pentecostal Christian with six children, has been preparing for the latter. Standing on a dusty red track, Amulo tipped back her head and started singing a hymn in Luganda, a local language. The song was one of many she had been rehearsing with the church choir.
”On Christmas Day, I will go to church, say prayers, read the Bible and attend the choir.” Amulo will also go to ”Sunday fellowship”, a discussion forum about morals, especially for women.
After church, 18 adults and 30 children from seven related households will come together for a meal. It will have been prepared by seven girls, one from each home. They will cook while the rest of the family attend church. The feast of rice, red meat and chicken will be the one time this year when Amulo and her family will eat meat.
”The girls and women sit on mats and the boys and men sit on chairs when we eat,” Amulo added. ”Men sit at the table and women on the floor. We have a special hut that we use at Christmas.”
After eating, the families will drink tea — their devotion to Christianity means no alcohol will be taken. There will be hymns and dancing to religious songs. ”We buy Christian tapes and rejoice,” said Amulo, who was wearing a blue T-shirt and bright yellow skirt. Her daughter, Elizabeth (14) said it was the biggest day of the year for the family.
It is the same for most non-Christians in Katine. Rukia Atolo, a Muslim woman with three children who works as a tailor, will be celebrating. ”I pray like Christians and prepare good food for my family and special, new clothes,” said Atolo (30) who was dressed in bright clothes with her hair pulled back in a bandana. ”We eat meat and rice at Christmas only and believe Jesus was born that day. We are more like Pentecostal Christians because we do not drink.”
For all the joy this Christmas in Katine, a deeply religious district, there will be many differences from the festive season in Britain. There will be no lights, no television and, for most, no turkey. There will be no no Queen’s speech, no iPods, computer games or expensive gifts. For most of Katine’s children, a bottle of soda would be a luxurious treat. But for all the poverty, the people of Katine, like those in Britain, will be focused on having a good time this Christmas. – Guardian Unlimited Â