Is gift-giving worthwhile during end-of-year festivities?

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A tour of some of the main markets of Garoua, the capital city of the North Region of Cameroon, would leave anyone overwhelmed . The Christmas season leaves no one indifferent, muslims and christians alike. An upsurge in economic activities constitutes an integral component of end-of-year festivities, with each member of the society expected to chip in his contribution. As such, traders pull out all the stops in restocking their shops with the most attractive of goods, ranging from toys of all sorts, christmas lights,garments, and other accessories.
These goods certainly need buyers, especially parents and guardians,who are expected to procure gifts , whatever the cost. Requests made by celebrants know no limits, who obviously worry the least about what purchasers have to go through. Some borrow large sums of money, others resort to uncivic and unchristian practices to raise the money they need, and after the feasts, start worrying about how to repay loans and balance necessary accounts. Reflecting on this while conversing with friends got us wondering: Is gift-giving really that necessary during end-of-year feasts?

Comments

  1. dventures24 December 2013 at 14:49

    Permit me say a big thank you Louisa for raising this issue at a time like this. My name is Amabo Divine (aka. Don Davo Amabo) writing from Johannesburg, South Africa. I would rather this came up in a generic forum where we had people physically present and able to debate issues.

    To the best of my knowledge, end-of-year feasts are for reconnecting, uniting, sharing moments with family and friends, and much more. In the 19th Century, the coming of Santa Claus also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle and simply "Santa", a mythical, fictitious figure with legendary, historical and folkloric origins who, in many Western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children on December 24, the night before Christmas gave birth to the idea of exchanging gifts.

    Over time, with the making and projecting of the legendary image and stories over broad media, the world embraced the idea of sharing gifts to children, with some end to make the children remain well behaved and cultures.

    Not to cloud much here, I think gift-giving is not really an obligation through this period, if the gift has to be purely physical. There are better gifts of "forgiveness, care, love, concern and much more" which would mean much more to some of its recipients, but we hardly give these. So, I would say I'd rather prefer not to give gifts during this time.

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  2. TRENDS24 December 2013 at 15:28

    Thanks for the insightful and thoughtful remarks; David.gifts could be abstract or concrete;i agree; but must it only be limited to this period of the year. Children and others could remain on their best behaviours through out the year; if they knew they would be rewarded for each good deed. so why wait till the end of the year.

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