RELIGION BULLETIN-CUBA: Official Celebration of Christmas

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Dec 6 1998 (IPS) - The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) is putting the holiday back into Christmas “for Christians and non- Christians, believers and non-believers alike.”

Suspended in 1969 and allowed as an “exception” last year, the Christmas Eve meal is one of the oldest traditions of Cuban families, regardless of whether they are practicing Christians.

The Christmas holiday also is high on the list of demands of the Catholic Church in Cuba which gained strength through the visit of Pope John Paul II here in January this year.

Christmas will be returned to the Cuban calendar as “proof of our consideration and respect for the wholesome sentiments and desires of our fellow citizens,” said a declaration from the PCC Political Bureau published by the Communist party daily ‘Granma.’

“No type of campaign or pressure has been applied either within or outside” Cuba for the government of President Fidel Castro to allow celebration of the Christmas holiday “just as is done throughout the Americas and the rest of the Western world,” the Political Bureau said.

According to the Communist leadership, bringing back the holiday implies “sacrificing millions of pesos (on a par with dollars at the official exchange rate) in salaries and goods and services not produced,” at a time when the country is riding out a severe economic crisis.

The PCC declaration appeared aimed at united the island’s population behind the Cuiban revolution, ue to celebrate its 40th anniversary in January.

Although the PCC Political Bureau only proposed Cuba officially recognize Christmas in its declaration to the State Council Tuesday, its acceptance is regarded as a formality.

Both the party leadership body and the government are headed by Castro.

Reacting to the news, the president of the Cuban Conference of Catholioc Bishops, Monsignor Adolfo Rodriguez, said “we are interested in this development…it seems logical and highly probable to us that Christmas will be recognised as a holiday.”

Orlando Marquez, spokesman of the episcopal conference, said the reinstitution of the Christmas holiday was “without a doubt a positive step” corresponding with “the religious sentiments of the Cubans.”

“Christians never stopped celebrating Christmas, even when the day was not recognized as a holiday,” he said.

According to the Political Bureau, Christmas originally was excluded from the list of public holidays when the authorities were caught up in trying to concentrate all possible resources to bring in a 10 million ton sugar harvest.

Official arguments state December is “a dry month, cool, highly suited to work on construction and the sowing, growing or harvesting of potatoes, vegetables, sugarcane, tobacco and other items important to the national economy.”

Hence it was the economic imperative which led to the cancellation of Christmas and also the elimination of any political event or national celebration on January 1 – the commemoration date of the Cuban Revolution.

“The best evidence that the suspension of the holiday on December 25 was not of a political nature, was the fact it remained untouched for 10 years” following the revolution in 1961, argued the PCC document. The suspension of the Christmas holiday for more than two decades “was not inspired by any religious sentiment, although there are some people abroad who have perfidiously tried to say otherwise.”

The Political Bureau said not even enemy action would have been able to impose “the mean, awkward and undiplomatic idea, of suspending (a religious holiday) for philosophical differences,” with the risk of offending hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide.

“No true Marxist would ever commit this mistake,” it added categorically.

It warned, however, the revolution will still continue to defend itself against unscrupulous methods used by “imperialism” (the United States) to destroy it – including the use of religious sentiments for counter-revolutionary ends.