New Year's or---Prom?

Forget Christmas—New Year’s is where it’s at.  That’s the big party around here.  I think it was especially festive this year because January first was close to a Sunday, so they could stretch the party out for longer.  See, the first Sunday of the new year is really the important day, because church offers people an opportunity to get all gussied up in their new clothes.  Gift exchange is not really a part of these holiday traditions, but there is a sense of obligation for somebody (men to women and vice versa, parents to children) to buy at least one set of new clothes or dresses.  Tailors and seamstresses have been burning the midnight oil for days getting all their projects done.  And of course, if a girl gets a new dress, she has to get her hair done too, so the hairdressers have also been weaving their fingers raw.  It’s like everyone’s getting ready for prom or somethin’—complete with dance late into the night.  So Sunday afternoon/evening comes around (or Monday or Tuesday) and suddenly you see all these really neatly dressed people, and no naked children.  Everyone’s just walking around town—through the dust no less—visiting one another, children forming packs of obnoxious, firecracker-throwing hellions (though dressed up nicely in their miniature suits and sunglasses), showing off their new clothes.  Young men have new ornately embroidered jeans and sports t-shirts plus bling—they look like they just hit up a Zumiez store.  The girls and women have traditionally designed and tailored dresses from Ghanaian print fabric, and small children are in anything that looks new and clean.  Dresses, new clothes, hairdos, jewelry, and dance party at the end.  It does feel eerily similar to prom.