Christmas in Venezuela Customs and Celebrations

Christmas for Venezuelans has been the most celebrated and expected time of the year. Since this month there is a great variety of folkloric, gastronomic, musical and religious customs mostly taken from many countries, which have acquired Creole characteristics in each of the regions that make up the national territory.

This time we call Christmas in many regions of the country for example in Maracaibo Edo Zulia begin in late October and early November after the celebration of the Virgin of the Chinita and we began to hear bagpipes Music icon of Christmas in Venezuela and see decorated with the smiling and bearded San Nicolás. And the cold starts, especially in the Andes, and people begin the expression "the cold or the pacheco arrived or, as the Colombians living in Bogotá would say, the refrigerator" in reference to the low temperatures.

We can not let pass that we hear also the Christmas carols from Spain, as well as the placement of cribs and Christmas trees and everyone after a greeting we say give me my bonus ... as a gesture of asking even a candy as a gift for the celebration of Christmas.

And if we go for a walk through the center of towns and cities we will begin to see the sales of the products for the preparation of the hallacas, the ham bread and figures to mount our "births" or cribs.
In the elaboration of cribs or births there are infinities of creations and ingenuities that make our culture beautiful and outstanding, for example in the Venezuelan Andes such as Táchira, Mérida and Trujillo even perform competitions in the elaboration of the best crib.

The main and quintessential tradition that despite the crisis that we Venezuelans go through and try not to miss, is the "making" of our hallaca, ham bread and some sweets or desserts such as black cake or sweet milky, in this tradition it is very important that all the members of the house participate, we rejoice that moment with music, and some drinks could be punch cream, beers or because not a good rum.

In this beautiful and happy time for Venezuelans, religious customs are maintained, as are the Christmas or Christmas masses, which are 9 Masses that take place from December 15 or 16 to end December 23 or 24. a novena that is performed to the child Jesus as thanks for the favors received in the year and to ask for next year, these begin at 5 am with burning a lot of gunpowder and many young people create pipers and awaken the population with music and joy to attend such masses.

It is truly beautiful that year after year as a family we live and experience such beautiful traditions, we give the baby Jesus to the little ones of the house and that despite the economic situation and inflation that our country suffers we make the slightest effort so that we enjoy a beautiful Christmas and above all the most important we enjoy in family united with love peace and health.

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year 2018!

It is my most sincere wish for my whole family of steemit ...