Robin Southern Cubans are celebrating Christmas openly at church and at home with decorations, church ceremonies and social gatherings. Many people in Cuba can t afford the traditional gift giving associated with Christmas in the United States, but that doesn t matter. The celebration is out of the closet and the spirit behind it is what matters to Cubans at a rough time in their history. Christmas 1999 is only the third legal Christmas Cuba has celebrated in 30 years. Originally, in honor of the Pope s visit, Castro made it sound like celebrating Christmas was an exception, but now Christmas is a permanent holiday in Cuba.
Some reports say the celebration is more like a carnival than a religious occasion.
Cubans of the generation 30 and younger have never even known Christmas. Religion in Cuba is a curious thing. Religious allegiance was banned in Cuba in 1969, a decade from the triumph of the revolution. After 30 years without a religious holiday or any display of religious worship, Cubans could have lost their faith. Some people believed that Cubans were not very religious anyway, with or without repression.