We are visiting in Burkina Faso; so I thought I would write my observations of Christmas celebrations here.

Daniel and Anne Kompaore with Dayle

The in the two days before Christmas, our hosts, Daniel and Anne Kompaore, received numerous gifts, mostly food and most of that live animals, especially guinea fowl which is highly valued here.

Daniel’s church had a Christmas eve service from 8 to 10 PM. A good part of it was a program by the children. A local Christian TV station carried a local Christmas eve service in the afternoon. It was also dominated by a children’s program, including reciting of Bible verses in French in unison by a group of children of varying ages. Our friends,  the Tioyes, said that their church’s Christmas eve service lasted until 2 AM and was largely a children’s program including a nativity play and recitation of Bible verses. So it seems that Christmas eve services are the norm.

On Christmas day, we had our celebratory meal at about 1 PM. During the course of the afternoon, people dropped by to say Merry Christmas. Some brought gifts of food. In one case they had called the day before to say exactly what they were bringing. Most stayed only a few minutes. A few,  family I think, stayed long enough to eat part of the meal, even tough they arrived after we ate.Daniel received a number of brief phone calls and SMS messages wishing him Merry Christmas. Even though few here have our number, we got brief phone calls with Christmas greetings.