This article was inspired by a press conference held this week by the city of Kigali in collaboration with security organs to address citizens via media on the dos and don’ts during the upcoming festive season “for the general security and well-being of the people” the city said. Yes, the festive season is here again! Like it does towards the close of each year but our memories of it get blurred as we soak ourselves in work from January to November, until we realize oops! It is Christmas again! It came too fast and we are either not prepared for it, we do not want the year to end and/or if there are lessons we had learnt last year, we most likely have forgotten them. You will agree with me that the festive season is usually characterized by Fellowship to remember baby Jesus born of Mary & Joseph in a manger, the Swallowship that comes with day-after constipation and hangover headache, as well as the Shoppingship that depletes most of the savings we have gained throughout the year’s hard work, bringing about feeling of guilt and shame. The past 4 years, the covid 19 pandemic interrupted the usual Christmas buzz. For some people, it made it challenging to travel to join their families, there were rules prohibiting controlling or social parties, and not as many shopping malls were as vibrant as before. This year -2022, potentially seen as post –covid, things are falling back in place now and it’s time to reflect on the fellowships, swallowships and shoppingships that are resuming and likely to be at a higher notch as potentially people will want to catch up on the lost momentum. Although festivities are expected to be a wonderful and joyous time for us all, they too carry a significant share of negative impacts that threaten our social, economic and ecological existence, which become more apparent in the post season period of January to March. Socially, the season can affect our mental health through raising anxiety, stress, worry, fatigue and loneliness. The village gossip (during social cooking) can arouse anger, jealousy and resentment. The season is a time for most families in Rwanda to host memorial services for lost relatives. Global statistics point to an increased rate of traffic car accidents, sexual harassment, under-age alcoholism and insecurity in December. Economically, the miscellaneous spending while buying/giving gifts for loved ones is undeniable. The season also creates room for inter family competitions- be it the younger cousin who is driving a luxurious car or the aunty from America who returned with the newest wig in town. Although children in the village get free entertainment from the drunk bachelor uncle, this negatives impacts on their aspiration for the future. We cannot end this conversation without bringing up the bills that goes to the goats and chicken that have to lose their lives and accompanying drinks. Environmentally, the season leads to reckless pollution, from little things like littering the environment, to big issues like the more cars (and new drivers) on the roads. The tripled cooking and washing time is related to triple resources we reap out of Mother Nature. The busy and smoky kitchens that go on for hours and days. Lest we forget, any additional ecological burden to our earth, at a time of other pressing global climate crisis needs our empathic reflections. Amidst all these, the biggest reminder is always that life goes on and the so-called life will indeed need to continue after the festive season. January’s first awake call is usually the school fees for educating our children. If we have depleted our savings on fellowship, swallowship and shoppingship, then we have the trend of people borrowing money to keep their families sail through the post-season, and cater for basic needs: food, shelter and clothing, while we squander our savings on secondary needs during the festive season. Those who wanted to show off their new cars to relatives, brag of the just concluded driving school skills risking all manner of eventualities to drive their loved ones to the countryside to be seen behind the wheel by former primary school mates”, those who spent their savings or even borrowed money to shop for gifts to impress their loved ones, those who fueled their egos to fund the parties are probably not seeing the real struggle to recover the bills, come January. You can imagine the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that characterize January, after the joyful and wonderful moments of December. The pain in realizing that the January moments are to be faced alone, as a family head or guardian, whereas the December moments were with the mass, the social or peer groups of cousins and/or former schoolmates that will also be too broke to lend a hand. The advice here to us all is that we can plan and budget the season and post season needs and wants ahead of time. Indeed, we ought to discourage ourselves from letting a temporal season blow us off radar. We can easily avoid over celebrating for one month, indulging in irresponsible festivity cheer in a manner that threatens our wellbeing for the other 11 months of the year. We should be comfortable in planning the season we can afford and easily avoid struggling to be okay after the season. The author is the Acting Dean, School of Architecture and Built Environment, College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda.
