Some Nigerian holidays are inextricably related to certain traditions. Easter Celebration, Good Friday, and Black Friday shopping. Then there’s the movie theatre and Christmas.
When you think of the Christmas season, you might not immediately think of going to the movies. Yes, there are the trees, followed by the carols and even the cookies with the cutouts. For many families, however, going to the movies on Christmas or in the days leading up to it has become a treasured holiday custom.
To put it another way, thousands of people watch films during the holiday season, particularly during the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, many of them out of tradition. However, it is somewhat of a Christmas miracle how the holiday and moviegoing became so entwined.
Many Nigerian films, including “Everybody Loves Jenifer”, “Thin Line”, “The Waiter”, “Alakada Bad and Bougie”, “One Night Guests”, “A Ghetto Love Story”, etc., are currently screening in theatres. As a result, many Nigerians have travelled from their homes to see these films, filling the theatres.
The entire week, not just Christmas Day, is a great time to go to the movies.
In addition to the fact that most people have free time and may be tired of family, people go to the movies because their children are not in school and need somewhere to go, and there are always new films that have been generating talk for months.
This wasn’t always true. Christmas was once seen as a holy day that should only be spent with family and at home.
However, when TV sets grew increasingly widespread in the late 1940s and early 1950s, film companies were looking for ways to entice people to return to theatres.
To attract the interest and buzz of Nigerians and make sure that everyone on vacation sees their films, a lot of Nigerian filmmakers now release their films during this festival.
