Cubans Celebrate Christmas After 30 Years Ban

MOSCOW, December 25 (Sputnik), Ekaterina Blinova – Even though it has been banned for more than 30 years, Christmas has been regaining popularity in Cuba since 1998; the thaw in US-Cuba relations has become an early holiday gift for the nation.

"Christmas was a very deep-rooted tradition in Cuba. It was interrupted for 38 years, which is no small thing, and yet it made a comeback," emphasized Jose Felix Perez, the secretary of Cuba's Conference of Bishops, as cited by Agence France-Presse.

In 1959 Fidel Castro, the iconic national leader, toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and declared it an atheist state.

However, the Christmas holiday was officially abolished in 1969, in a move aimed at boosting the country's sugar industry. In October 1969, Castro's government announced a plan dubbed "The ten million harvest" in an effort to trigger Cuba's economic growth, Quartz narrates. "To avoid interrupting the harvest, Christmas and New Year's celebrations were moved to July and December 25 became a normal working day," the media source notes.

Thus, the period between 1969 and 1998, is known in the country as Las navidades silenciadas or "The Silent Christmases."

"I remember my Uncle Antonio gave us a plastic old broken Christmas tree which we kept hidden. I don’t know how he got it. We enjoyed the tree anyway, even if we couldn’t light it at night," says Angela, 59, of Havana, as cited by Quartz.

In 1998, during his visit to Havana, Pope John Paul II forced President Castro to revive the holiday, points out the Independent, adding that Cubans, mostly Catholics, "rushed out to buy Christmas trees, decorations and religious icons."

Today, in the country, where Catholicism peacefully co-exists with local traditions and African religions, the holiday is celebrated with a hope for steady economic growth and prosperity.

"Everything the two presidents [Castro and Obama] announced is giving people hope that their lives will get better and there will be greater understanding," says Jose Felix Perez

Although Christmas had been banned here for 30 years, Cubans have preserved "the holiday's sincerity, in ways it has been lost elsewhere," underscores Enrique Sacerio Gari, a professor of Hispanic-American studies at Bryn Mawr College, the US.

"Cuba differs from others in that, in this 30-year period, Christmas was marketed around the world as a business, and the religious aspect of it largely went away. Cuba wasn't part of that commercialization of the holiday, so to speak," he stressed, as quoted by Quartz.