The fact that Argentina is a Catholic country is surely no surprise to many. How much of a Catholic country it is, one can only experience.
Christmas is naturally the most important holiday of the year. This makes Christmas Eve the biggest family gathering of the year. It falls also smack into the summer vacations.
Very much like in the US, the days leading up to Christmas are crazy shopping season. Papa Noel brings lots of gifts, mostly smaller gifts.
Christmas Eve mass is very well attended. I ended up going to a small neighborhood church to the 8:30pm mass. The Church was overflowing into the sidewalks and onto the street.
People go all out for Christmas Eve dinners, which start around 9pm and go late into the night. It is 2am as I am writing this and the party is still going strong. Although the younger kids are slowly finding their way to a bed.
Then there are the fireworks. It is unheard of in most countries to shoot of fireworks on Christmas Eve. Argentinean streets however turn into a war zone, with simple fireworks for the young kids, to large fireworks costing hundreds of dollars each.
Feliz Navidad!!
No comments:
Post a Comment