Every family has traditions when it comes to Christmas celebration, My family as Christians we celebrate Christmas in a grand way not because of the religious aspect of it only but due to family gatherings attached to it. which means during Christmas we always have a lot of mouth to feed since the whole family will be gathering in one place including some of my maternal and paternal extended relatives but before the whole celebrations begin there is something that will be found in our compound that will indicate that Christmas is near, which is chicken roaming about in our compound.
Though we have a lot livestocks in my family farm but we have a cage in our compound where we keep livestock or poultry animals that will be used for the Christmas celebration. from the numbers of chicken roaming about in cages in our compound you will surely get the idea that they were kept for Christmas celebration. in most families it has become a tradition to slaughter chickens during Christmas. when I was a child I used to wonder if chickens committed any religious crimes that has resulted to their mass slaughter during Christmas period. what a silly thought😅.
Apart from that, those days when we were still children, there is something I and my siblings are so fixated upon. Christmas eve is dedicated for preparation of any food related activities in preparation for Christmas. On that day around the evening, we kill chickens this is mostly done by dad or sometimes if he is not available it will be done by my grandmother because my mom can't. My mom has this distinctive personality that will make you assume she is a vegetarian and the reason is because she is not capable of killing an animal. in a way she feels pity for them.
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After my grandmother or dad is done with the killing of the chickens the next stage is to boil water and soak the chickens into it in order pluck out the chicken feathers then slicing and cooking. this is usually the duty of my elder brother and some grown cousins. during this process there is a part of the chicken given to we the younger ones and we were always lying in the corner of the house or kitchen waiting for it. immediately the chicken has been boiled my late grandmother would go into the kitchen and bring out the chicken legs. though it might just be just a chicken leg but to us during those days it was like a trophy. We go about with chicken legs chewing it and playing with the bones before the meal is ready. it really makes us happy, I guess what makes you happy does not need to be expensive.
There was a particular year during the Christmas Eve, the whole process was going on and the chicken has been boiled. it was time for us the tax collectors to receive our part of the chicken but something unexpected happened. Normally immediately we the children notice the chicken has been boiled we roam about the entrance of the kitchen Waiting for our grandmother to come out and share the chicken legs but there is something about our grandmother, she is the kind of woman who place a lot of importance on morals and character. She doesn't like it when children roam about the kitchen entrance, she believes we can all gather in the dining table and she will do the needful but you know children we don't really obey instructions we prefer to be led by our desires.
For some us that knew this about my grandmother, the idea is to pretend as if we don't want the chicken legs and act matured while other children roam around. Whenever my grandmother comes out to share the chicken legs and she sees some children standing in front of the kitchen waiting for her, normally she will just scold them and ask them to move to the dinning table but on this specific day she chose to punish the children instead of just scolding them.
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Immediately I, my junior brother and 2 of my cousins heard the chicken has been boiled, we moved to the dining table and pretend as usual😅. when my grandmother came out and saw some children at the entrance of the kitchen she got upset and decided not to give any of those children chicken legs. she moved to the dinning table where she met about 4 of us including me. she smiled and gave us the bowl that contains the chicken legs. we were confused because they were a lot of chicken legs in the bow, so we paused and awaited are instructions before descending on the chicken legs😂 because we don't know if she was testing our patience and we don't want to make a wrong decision that might lead us to forfeiting our share of the chicken legs
I guess she noticed that we were reluctant, she looked at us again and smiled and she said "It is all yours, it is the reward for your patience" I was stunned because they were a lot of chicken legs in the bowl, I just kept on salivating in my mind. I kept calculating how many chicken legs will be mine. immediately she left the dining table, we sat like kings and started sharing the chicken legs. that day was the first time I was given up to 8 chicken legs 😂. I was extremely joyous because those days chicken legs were really important😅.
Up till this moment when I think about that day I still feel joyous because it was one of my most happiest Christmas Eve. though as we grew older things such as chicken legs no longer matters. you know it was after I grew older that I kept asking myself that why were we so joyous about chicken legs when there was other part of the chicken with more meat and less bones compared to the chicken legs. Though a moment such as that can no longer be recreated for a lot of reasons because my grandmother is now late, it was a tradition she upheld and after she was gone it began to fade, we no longer go to our home town to celebrate Christmas and secondly I no longer feel joyous about chicken legs anymore 😂. those were happy days without worries.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Your fondest holiday memories" in hive learners community.
