In Nigeria, fabricated stories about the demonic powers of ember months are not in short supply. There is virtually no fallacy that has not been concocted from the figments of human imagination about the calamities that befall Nigerians from the beginning of September to the end of December, the so-called ember months.
The souls of those that departed during ember months are condemned to wait out in purgatory until New Year before they could proceed on their journey towards the gates of heaven or even hell! Any intending couple that enters into a marriage contract at this time of year stands the risk of suffering from endless search for the fruit of the womb, or even having the marriage dissolved no sooner than it was consummated! In the spiritual realm, it marks the period when demonic forces grow insatiably hungry for human blood, and under this state of affairs, they unleash bloodsucking spirits upon the world, causing vehicles, trains and airplanes to crash in order to satisfy their appetite for blood! What a potpourri of cock and bull stories!
For those of us born during this period, we have every cause to be concerned, particularly when September, the very first of these “calamitous” months, rears its ugly head! Quite a good number of my relatives, close friends and colleagues were born in no other month than this same September in particular.
Interestingly, contrary to these imaginary tales, a study conducted in University of Toronto, University of Florida and North-Western University revealed that babies born during ember months, especially in the month of September, are most likely to be successful in life and in their career.
Ekemena, my dear wife, was born on 31st October, and from all indications, she is quite determined to celebrate it. The Vice President of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, was born into the family of Shettima Mustafa Kuttayibe in Maiduguri on the 2nd day of September 1966. No calamity has befallen him in his office at Abuja, as far as we know.
Even Krishna, the god of the Hindus, was recorded to have been born early September. Hindus worship him till tomorrow. Whether the records are accurate or not, the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is still celebrated every year in December, the last of the ember months. Jesus was able to rise up from the grave to overcome Satan and his agents despite the so-called calamity that comes with yuletide!
Mahatma Gandhi who championed the struggle for the independence of India from British rule was born in October. Our own Yakubu Gowon under whose watch the Nigerian nation survived a bloody civil war was born in October. The nation called Nigeria was born in October, and contrary to the wishes of the devil, the country has still not perished.
Nigerian music icons 2Face Idibia, Davido, and Don Jazzy were all born in November; no calamity that we know of has yet befallen them on that account!
The point here therefore is that there is nothing foredooming or calamitous about ember months. Of course, there is usually a remarkable escalation of negative occurrences as the year winds down. This is not necessarily spiritual. The notion that ember months are purveyors of evil and disasters, road accidents, ritual killings, marital problems, car-snatching, highway robbery, kidnapping, etc comes from the peculiar circumstances of the period. A certain suffocating atmosphere of extreme socio-economic pressure and exhaustion envelopes the people resulting in all kinds of wanton impulses across board so that one got the feeling that some bad omen was unfolding. Quite frankly, the ember period is dangerous, but it’s not because of any supernatural influence but because of desperation, greed, covetousness, inordinate ambition, haste, and too much emphasis on Christmas that Jesus himself or his disciples never celebrated. Everybody is desperate to ensure they have enough cash to spend during Christmas. Not a few engage in money rituals, transforming human beings into animals, recalibrating them to vomit physical cash, and making human organs to disappear into thin air!
By December, all these evil acts and negative impulses climax into a frenzy, sometimes of epochal proportions, especially if preceding months had witnessed some form of upheaval such as hunger, inflation, unemployment, electoral violence, banditry or miscarriage of justice, for instance. Flash floods, fire outbreaks, building collapse, disease outbreaks – all symptomatic of a society under pressure – assume frightening proportions. These misfortunes exert more pressure as people struggle not to carry the burden into the new year. Knowingly or unknowingly, they let their guards down the most and are mostly distracted during this period, as they are usually in a celebratory mood, and more susceptible to temptations; needless to add that the devil thrives most in chaotic situations.
To remedy this myth of calamities and prevent it from metamorphosing into reality, perhaps the advice of one of the apostles called Luke may suffice: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all of them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” (Luke 21:34-35).
*Anthony-Spinks is of the Delta State Public Procurement Commission. He writes from Asaba.
