Instead of klopse, Malay choirs and family braais, we are taking our National State of Disaster with us into 2021.
This is probably going to be the most depressing festive season in living memory.
It’s especially true since most of our seasonal traditions involve large gatherings of friends and family.
It would’ve started with the Festive Lights Switch-On carnival that was cancelled for the first time since I can remember and carried on until the winning minstrel troupe is announced well into the new year.
And it’s not just the fear of infection that’s got us all paralysed, it’s the lack of money as well.
Even those who do have cash to spare are holding onto it in case of emergency.
Coronavirus is forcing us all to sacrifice the time of year that the whole world looks forward to.
It’s come and ripped the jolly right out of the season, leaving a thick cloud of despair hanging in the air.
It’s like we are all suffering from a mild case of collective and persistent melancholia these days.
We call it the Big Days, but now it looks like we are all in a big daze.
But the president’s speech last week made it clear – we can’t afford to drop the ball.
If we hope for any semblance of normality to return some day (hopefully soon), then Covid-fatigue is simply not an option.
There are still far too many people going around without masks on.
And what’s up with those of you with your noses sticking out above your masks?
Were you absent from biology class that day when we learned that we ALL breathe in through our noses?
It’s just as effective as a condom with the tip cut off!
Cape Town may have been spared this time by what is clearly a second wave of infections.
But remember, the big festive migration is about to take place, with lots of travel between us and the Eastern Cape, which is a hotspot.
So if we don’t perfect our protective hygiene, then we are all in very real danger when those people return to Cape Town in the new year.
And we will have no one but ourselves to blame.