By: Livinus Ukah

The months popularly called EMBER months are the last four months in the year, namely: September, October, November and December. Only God knows why these months are unique, peculiar and particularistic. Many people look forward to Ember months for variety of reasons. One obvious reason is that it is business sensitive and full of hustle and bustle. Some people believe that if they could not make it at the ember months they cannot prepare for the other year.

However, each of the months has its economic values. The month of rainy season takes its toll to obey the natural laws and farmers need rain to grow their crops and harvest them for festive seasons. One thing that is common to all the months is that they are not free from misery, misfortune and hardship.

Towards the middle of August, the excitement of Ember months takes hold of many people. Entering Ember months, gives hope. Its sunshine energizes us into what we will do for the rest of the remaining months that are full of social expectations. The Ember months are months of high expectations and planning.

They are months man hits the road to solve the problems and exigencies of life. These months give man extra oxygen to move around and gather what to spend at the queen of the ember months; December. These months go fast. They are stress ridden but man copes well, knowing what lies ahead.

In these ember months, anxieties are high, especially on business men and women as well as the poor. These are the months where everybody wants to make it by all means. They are the months of rat race.  Christian ethics at this time is not even remembered. Competition is high in the ember months. 25th of December becomes a Centre of all events. The thought of Christmas is in all the hearts of people. The air is dominated with Christmas spirit. The media begins to create feelings of Christmas in people. All is to sharpen their consumption pattern to buy and buy. The spiritual feast now becomes a social event where even non-Christians join in celebrating it. No one is left out!

People run into great debts. All events are congealed into Christmas – weddings, meetings, parties’ etcetera. A great number of people do have hang-overs during the season because they made Christmas a month of competition, going home with flashy cars. Many buy or even borrow the latest brands of cars to show off. The effects of Christmas linger for a long time.

In January, you can never find a man with an unfinished business accruing from the ember months. Man slows down to gather himself again to start life again. Most people even lose their jobs due to their inability to come back in time after exhausting their earnings in the Christmas excitement with no transport fares to return to work. The excitement of the ember months, especially Christmas, has its drawbacks. The social constructs around Christmas create untold harms on those that cannot control their spending. They pay for it in January.

Christmas in the Eastern part of Nigeria is another narrative. Lagos is usually empty because all roads would lead to the East. The Easterners have their own ambience of celebrating Christmas. Some parts of the East celebrate Christmas every day until January. All those coming home add color to the village environs which helps to deepen relationships with one another.

However, the economic hardship of this year imposed on us diminishes our great celebration. The borders are closed and the most popular food for Christmas; Rice and Chicken, are no longer within the reach of the pockets.

The season makes man to reflect seriously on the proper use of his wealth. Instead of focusing on the spirituality of Christmas, man creates his own social events. Man must be careful not to be carried away by the events he has created around Christmas that would bring later regrets. Though it is good to celebrate at the end of the year after struggling, experiencing pains and disappointments but it should be done in a way that would not disturb our focus in life.    

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