Learn About Human Beings and Their Frivolities by Austin Isikhuemen
I wish a very happy New Year to all my readers. Some thoughts crossed my mind this morning on this first Sunday of 2021 as I get ready to go for mass – the Catholic equivalent of Muslim’s Friday Jumaat. I know some Christian folks would scoff at that comparison. So would some Muslims too.
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And that is the very premise on which I wish to muse this morning – the frivolities of us humans who have claimed to be the most superior of the species God created according to the holy books that humans read. Don’t condemn me yet, just open your minds. The mind is like an umbrella, it is only effective when open!
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The very first sentence in the above paragraph is subject to debate. When is a new year? When does the old year end and when does the new begin?
Did the old year, whatever that means, really end on 31st December, and the new began 1stJanuary? Was there no time in history that this wouldn’t have been the case before the advent, rather adoption by humans, of the Gregorian calendar?
There are said to be up to 40 calendars in the world but let me just name seven: Gregorian, Chinese, Jewish, Islamic, Persian, Ethiopian and the Balinese Pawukon calendar. Do they all agree on dates? Is first January of the Gregorian calendar the beginning of their new year? The answer is no.
So, when I say happy New Year, how do the users of the other calendars respond or feel? Do they think I am uninformed and therefore saying something good at the wrong time?
Chinese New Year is Friday 12th February, 2021. So those who say here that covid19 has been buried (a wish really) with the old year 2020 may not have reckoned with the fact that the home country of the virus is still in the ‘old’ year and the virus may not obey! Similarly, the Islamic new year 2020 began Wednesday 19th August last year and would end 20th August 2021.
Therefore it is difficult to know what passes through the mind of someone you are wishing a happy new year. However, they all accept it because, after all, you didn’t add “today” and it may well apply to their own New Year whenever it is!
The only thing that is certain, is the scientifically proven rotation of the earth on its axis and its revolution around the SUN on which is based days and nights and the seasons that determine our weather which climate change is even threatening today. Not even the seven-day week is uniform across cultures.
Esan week is 4 days of Edekiolele, Edezele, Edugbo, Edekiabhiele – using my Amedokhian heritage. Yet, the figure seven appears so much in our cosmology such as burials, gift items, etc.
Festivities are very important in human societies. People save ahead towards festivals and the associated feasts.
This is so whether in Western countries, the Eastern block or indeed the African continent that I was lucky to be born in. You needed to see the frantic preparations for Christmas and the New Year and the volume of business transacted during the period and you wonder!
Christmas is supposed to be a festival to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in a manger in Bethlehem. Some people, Christians and non-Christians alike have disputed that veracity of that date but 25th December is the date generally accepted in Christendom.
Those frantically shopping, decorating, booking air and road travels and stocking up for serious feasting are not all Christians.
The season is important to everyone – kings, paupers, believers, armed robbers and pickpockets, transporters and cattle rearers, poultry farmers of Lagos and the rice growers of Kebbi, hairdressers, and tailors. What of the makers of fireworks and show promoters who cash in on these events to make fortunes?
I am told many herbalists too, make quick bucks from those who want to be sure the roads are not ‘hungry’ before they embark on their trips. It’s all part of the hype that humans have come to associate with these festivities.
I woke up on 1st January only to find that my maiguards still swept the driveway, the cocks still crowed nearby and the sun still ‘rose’ from the east. The rice my sister sent so early in the morning since I was home alone in my country home, still tasted the same with the unmistakable ‘rice mi jojo’ flavor that crayfish have been guilty of imparting since the early sixties.
All those involved in shooting bangers through the 31st night to welcome the arrival of 2021 still rode okadas to church to worship and thank God for surviving 2020 and seeing the beginning of 2021 which is expected to bring with it all the goodies of life and redress the wrongs 2020 brought with it.
But, wait a minute, the jobless still had no job yet. The closed schools had not opened and the price of petrol was still on the roof. Bank accounts have even dried up in order to meet the demands for the festivities.
On CNN and Fox News we still saw Trump making wild allegations of vote fraud and threatening America and the world with four more years of his not so sane theatrics. So, what is it that makes us humans so overwhelmed with joy and positive expectations on a date the Gregorian calendar has designated as the first day of its year?
It is what is called hope. That feeling of expectation that something positive is going to happen. The opposite of hope is despair, or hopelessness if you like.
Humans choose hope over despair and this explains a lot of what we do and did to celebrate the New Year with such aplomb in the midst of circumstances you would ordinarily consider extremely daunting. Hope. That today would be better than yesterday. This year would be better than the last.
That tomorrow, when it comes, would better our circumstances no matter the difficulties of today. That’s why Leah Sharibu’s parents celebrated the new year. That is why a gubernatorial candidate is still in court after the swearing-in of a clear winner.
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The same reason Trump is still throwing his tantrums hoping the Congress and Pence can undo what those they represent – the voters – did on November 3rd, 2020. Maina would probably be expecting, hoping, that EFCC would be scrapped in 2021!
Hope. It shares the same attributes with faith – the belief in things unseen sometimes without evidence, usually based on conviction rather than concrete proof.
If hope dies then humans would have no reason to live. It is hoped that makes you spend the last kobo in your account to celebrate one night changing into a day in a special way when that has happened 365 times already.
Those special decorations, fireworks, newspaper reviews, and even annual awards and choice of man-of-the-year, the eating and drinking and wearing of special fabrics and fake eyelashes, Brazilian hair that comes from Togo, the unfortunate fate of millions of chickens, turkeys, and rams are all part of the frivolities that keep life going and re-energizes the economy even in a pandemic.
But, wait a minute, suppose there wasn’t New Year to celebrate? Take out these frivolities and human life would be drab and meaningless. On New Year’s day, the driver can be mistaken for the boss when he is all spruced up in his new babanriga. Why would you deny him that privilege that occurs once a year?
Do you want to deny those kids the adrenaline surge that a massive explosion of fireworks causes and the beauty of the colorful sparks that lighten up the sky? Ask the General Overseers when the offering and tithes are highest. Tailors, sorry, fashion designers and engineers would scoff at any suggestion to postpone the new year.
So would cattle herders who made huge sales during that period. And I know for a fact that the breweries meet almost half their annual sales target this season from October to January all driven by these frivolities we have come to accept and enjoy.
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Even the spirits represented by the Okpodu (some Esan masquerade types) validate the season by coming out in large numbers from wherever they come from, dancing and collecting money from admirers as they entertain everyone.
Not too sure where they spend the money or if naira and kobo are legal tender yonder. Does the Central Bank control their monetary policy too?
I could not ask them because they and the elimhin speak a strange language said to be derived from Ighalan – Esan for Igalas of neighboring Kogi State.
Let the frivolity continue. It is part of the myth that makes us human. The New Year 2021 has just begun and school fees stare parents in the face.
Some resolutions made on 31st are being broken already. But don’t worry; you can make another tomorrow and count 365 days. It will still make one year. PMB made his best speech this New Year. There is hope!
May 2021 bring peace, security, good governance, and prosperity to our country and the world. And may we put our hand on the plough to do the hard work required to achieve these outcomes. Happy New Year to everyone.
Benin City, 3rd January 2021 – Austin Isikhuemen
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