Mother’s Day in Cuba
By Nike
HAVANA TIMES – Even though it was earlier in the month, I’d like to tell you my thoughts about this special day that was Mother’s Day in Cuba, which we celebrate on the second Sunday in May.
Everybody who could, traveled to their mother’s home to celebrate this beautiful day. Most people ate chicken for lunch, which you could buy with the rations booklet on Friday, and which is now selling for 35 pesos per pound. Everybody gets a pound with the booklet. Most mothers received practical gifts such as personal hygiene items, which are well-received right now.
Cubans don’t miss a chance to celebrate, much less on this day, and even though we have the habit of saying “la cosa esta de madre” (having a mother of a day) when things are bad, we try and have a good time on this day and foget the bad omen of what having a “mother of a day” is.
In spite of everything we’re experiencing right now, you could see joy in my neighborhood and I liked that people were able to forget their problems, even for a day.
Maybe lots of people don’t see it this way. But that was the impression I got this beautiful day. I even received a gift from a neighbor who gave me a bar of soap with a card. A gesture that really made me happy. I thanked her by giving her two purple masks I had made, as it’s the color of Saint Lazarus, the saint she worships, along with a little bar of soap.
Flower vendors passed by and many people on my block left their homes to buy flowers for their mothers, grandmothers and aunts.
Living in need or not, nobody can take Mother’s Day celebrations from my people.