Cuba Xmas-New Years Images
Photo Feature by Caridad
HAVANA TIMES, Dec. 28 – Photographer Caridad brings us some end of year images from the Cuban capital. While the holiday season is refreshingly far less commercial than in other countries there are some trimmings and people greet each other with a “Felicidades” which serves as a catch all for Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
In Cuba, the New Year also has a political connotation, as January 1st brings another anniversary of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The government usually issues a statement to usher in the New Year, although the main anniversary celebration takes place each July 26th, commemorating the 1953 assault on two eastern Cuban garrisons, the landmark date that sparked the victory that came five and a half years later.
Click on the thumbnails to see all the photos in this gallery
P.S. For several years, instead of an angel or star at the top of our Christmas tree, I placed a small, framed, picture of Comrade Stalin. Eventually, my wife and daughters rose up in rebellion and hid the picture.
Great fotos! A mixture of camp and kitche (e.g. the Santa Claus on the wall of the palador). Just hope I can some day escape all this “Martha Stewart” Christmas crap up here and go to Cuba over the holidays, though probably by then the over-comercialization of Christmas will have reached Cuba, too. What then? Maybe Xmas in Burkina Faso or Eritrea or someplace else where it isn’t yet celebrated. !Bah! !Humbug!