Celebrating With Caution
By DAILY GRAPHIC - Daily Graphic Feature Article | Tue, 07 Oct 2008
| 
 Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Ghanaians. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then--we elected them. - By: roylexi.com  |
Ghanaians are fun-loving people. It is no exaggeration that visitors to this country depart with fond memories of a people who do not allow the hardships of this world to extinguish in them their spirit to celebrate.
Not even death. That is why funerals are gradually taking the form of festivals and are being euphemistically described as celebrations of life.
So whether it is a religious or traditional festival or the celebration of the life of a departed relation, Ghanaians are quick to rise to the occasion to burn all their energies to fill themselves with food and alcohol.
After all, what is life if you have to allow poverty and other vicissitudes of life to deprive you of fun or allow sorrow and misery emanating from the death of a dear one to reduce you to tatters when life must go on?
But these days, either out of excitement or out of desperation, we descend to the extreme. Those selected to go to the mortuary to collect bodies are sometimes so drenched in alcohol that they easily pick the wrong corpses.
It has happened several times and relatives only realise, deep into the funeral rites, that they have been mourning the wrong person.
The drivers conveying bodies from the mortuaries usually get carried away by sorrow fuelled by alcohol and drive so recklessly that sometimes more lives are lost, turning a rather sombre observation of death into a bigger nightmarish experience.
The funeral ground itself is something like a picnic, with different live bands or spinning groups competing for attraction.
Depending on the stature of the dead and the financial weight of those in charge of the funeral, the celebrants could be assured of a free flow of torrents of alcoholic beverages.
Then starts careless and loose talks and irresponsible behaviour.
Some mourners never return home in piece because the reflexes of their drivers have been numbed by excess alcohol and, therefore, they could not make a difference between an approaching articulated truck and a wheelbarrow.
Some of the women who take delight in competing with the men in alcohol consumption lose control and do not remember the vehicles they sat in to the funerals and naturally end up sitting by the wrong men. It is a common allegation that some marriages suffer after funerals.
Some wake up after a funeral with missing teeth or swollen jaws because they had over-indulged in the celebrations.
What should have been a solemn occasion to pay last respects to a lost one ends up with the deceased forgotten and the things we can remember are the losses and the pains.
If funerals have assumed the status of carnivals, it is not difficult to picture what happens at festivals.
It is the same drinking and eating and the vulgar display of recklessness.
The joy and togetherness these festivals were designed to bring to us are most often lost in the midst of accidents, quarrels, broken limbs and sometimes death.
It is sad that religious rites or festivals have not escaped this menace. Christmas, which is an important event on the Christian calendar marking the birth of Jesus Christ, lacks, in most part, any religious fervour.
Apart from the ritualistic church services which many do not miss, the merry-making associated with Christmas may not make Jesus Christ, wherever he may be sitting, happy in Heaven.
The same can be said of Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Where Christians have failed, we thought Muslims will show the way. But once a Ghanaian, always a Ghanaian. Continued
Not even death. That is why funerals are gradually taking the form of festivals and are being euphemistically described as celebrations of life.
So whether it is a religious or traditional festival or the celebration of the life of a departed relation, Ghanaians are quick to rise to the occasion to burn all their energies to fill themselves with food and alcohol.
After all, what is life if you have to allow poverty and other vicissitudes of life to deprive you of fun or allow sorrow and misery emanating from the death of a dear one to reduce you to tatters when life must go on?
But these days, either out of excitement or out of desperation, we descend to the extreme. Those selected to go to the mortuary to collect bodies are sometimes so drenched in alcohol that they easily pick the wrong corpses.
It has happened several times and relatives only realise, deep into the funeral rites, that they have been mourning the wrong person.
The drivers conveying bodies from the mortuaries usually get carried away by sorrow fuelled by alcohol and drive so recklessly that sometimes more lives are lost, turning a rather sombre observation of death into a bigger nightmarish experience.
The funeral ground itself is something like a picnic, with different live bands or spinning groups competing for attraction.
Depending on the stature of the dead and the financial weight of those in charge of the funeral, the celebrants could be assured of a free flow of torrents of alcoholic beverages.
Then starts careless and loose talks and irresponsible behaviour.
Some mourners never return home in piece because the reflexes of their drivers have been numbed by excess alcohol and, therefore, they could not make a difference between an approaching articulated truck and a wheelbarrow.
Some of the women who take delight in competing with the men in alcohol consumption lose control and do not remember the vehicles they sat in to the funerals and naturally end up sitting by the wrong men. It is a common allegation that some marriages suffer after funerals.
Some wake up after a funeral with missing teeth or swollen jaws because they had over-indulged in the celebrations.
What should have been a solemn occasion to pay last respects to a lost one ends up with the deceased forgotten and the things we can remember are the losses and the pains.
If funerals have assumed the status of carnivals, it is not difficult to picture what happens at festivals.
It is the same drinking and eating and the vulgar display of recklessness.
The joy and togetherness these festivals were designed to bring to us are most often lost in the midst of accidents, quarrels, broken limbs and sometimes death.
It is sad that religious rites or festivals have not escaped this menace. Christmas, which is an important event on the Christian calendar marking the birth of Jesus Christ, lacks, in most part, any religious fervour.
Apart from the ritualistic church services which many do not miss, the merry-making associated with Christmas may not make Jesus Christ, wherever he may be sitting, happy in Heaven.
The same can be said of Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Where Christians have failed, we thought Muslims will show the way. But once a Ghanaian, always a Ghanaian. Continued
"The Author's/Authors' views do not necessarily reflect those of ModernGhana."
Join our columinists by submitting your article(s) to editor@modernghana.com. | More columnists
Join our columinists by submitting your article(s) to editor@modernghana.com. | More columnists
Comments To This Article
No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts?Add your comment
| Rate This Story » | Current rating: 0 by 0 users |
