How the first Christmas in Nigeria was celebrated:
December has never failed to bring the street of Nigeria alive with shades of red, white ans green adorning buildings, cars, poles and streetlights because it’s the month to celebrate Christmas.
Christmas has been celebrated by Christian around the word as the anniversary to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ for over decade.
It’s one celebration which Nigerians can’t afford to miss because it comes different types of fun, merriment,love, Chicken and Jollof rice as well.
Even though nobody knew the actual date on which Jesus was born, but the Western Christian Church tagged December 25 as his birthday and it was accepted all over the word.
The celebration of Christmas in Nigeria started with the repatriation of freed slaves from the United States of America to Badagry, Lagos, Nigeria In 1838.
Not less than five hundred thousand (500,000), slaves settled down in Badagry, And among these slaves is a man called James Ferguson, a leader of a trading group and a Methodist.
After he has been grant approval, James Ferguson invited missionaries from Sierra Leone to start missionary work in Badagry on March 2, 1841.
Ferguson invitation was responded to by the authorities in Sierra Leone on September 23, 1841, and sent a missionary named Reverend Thomas Birch Freeman to Badagry. Reverend Freeman arrived a ship (Known as Spy), which anchored in a place known as Gbẹrẹfu sea Beach.
William De Graft and his wife who where both from Ghana (then Gold Coast), accompanied the reverend when be he was coming.
Just a day after he arrived Nigeria he preached a sermon about Christianity under the Agia tree in Asisoe Tin, Badagry.
The then alake Of Egba Oba. Sodeke invited Reverend Freeman to come and preach Christianity for some slaves that have travelled from Badagry to Abeokuta ans also to those living there before. Reverend Freeman travelled to Abeokuta on December 11, 1842 And returned back to Badagry on December 24, a day to Christmas and he met the renowned reverend Henry Townsend of the Church missionaries society (Now Anglican Church of Christ).
The following day which was December 25, 1842 saw Reverend Freeman and Henry Townsend celebrating the first Christmas in Nigeria under the Agia tree in Asisoe Tin, Badagry.
The Christmas celebration was attended by the devoted population of Badagry natives, the freed slaves and Europeans living in Badagry at that time. The celebration began with Reverend Henry Townsend reading from the scripture and then Reverend Freeman rendered a sermon which he titled ‘The Incarnation Redeemer of Mankind’.
Christmas celebration began in Nigeria as a gathering under a tree in Badagry but as at today, it has gone beyond such to a large and glamourous celebration with fanfare.
Besides being the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas in Nigeria serve as a means of bringing families and loved ones together to share joyous and memorable moments.
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