Christmas 2022 and best wishes for 2023
Christmas is a big and long celebration! The Church celebrates it for 8 days, until January 1st.
Here
in Central Africa the celebrations are simpler, less ornate, but
perhaps richer: fewer lights, but more Light, some rare Christmas trees
(decorated with strips of paper or plastic), some very simple mangers,
and a few (more often none) Christmas presents.
Yet, the
celebration is very intense, and one clearly feels that 2,000 years ago,
on that night in Bethlehem, something very important happened. Well
Someone!
On Saturday, December 24, Christmas Eve, I celebrated it
in Bawi, 35 km from Baoro. While I confessed the numerous Christians,
we projected a beautiful film on the Nativity of Jesus. The Mass was
well attended, and there were many people.
I returned to Baoro
around 10pm, and on Christmas day I spent it in Barka Bongo, about forty
km away. There was a lot of celebration, and after Mass the village
organized lunch for the entire Christian community, children and adults.
Monday,
December 26th is Santo Stefano, and I went to Dobere, about fifty km
away. Today is the feast of the patron saint of the chapel.
After a couple of hours of confessions, we celebrated Mass, well accompanied by the choir of the village.
Here as well they organized lunch for all the Christians in the village.
Tuesday
I went to Bozoum: in a month, from January 27 to 29, we will have the
18th annual Bozoum Fair, and it's time to start the preparations, and
this is the reason for my visit. In the afternoon, after visiting the
market, I went to see the rice fields, which are in full harvest.
Happy
New Year to all. Thank you to all of you who read and follow the blog.
Thanks to me who writes it (!!!), but above all to Fr. Juan, Sr Nazarè,
Ludmila, Natasha and Regina who translate it into Spanish, Portuguese,
Czech, English and German every week.
Heartfelt wishes: every moment, every moment is full of Grace and Mercy. God blesses us. And God bless you!
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| Messa della notte di Natale, a Bawi Messe de la nuit de Noel à Bawi |
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| Barka Bongo |
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| Dobere |
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| Il riso di Bozoum le riz de Bozoum |
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| Bozoum |
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| Bozoum, il mercato - le marché |
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