Christmas in Venezuela is a wonderful, noisy, and happy event. All those things related to music, food, and religious traditions take place in a country that has no winter. Not only because Venezuela has tropical weather, but because everybody is so warm there. So we pretend to feel the cold of the artificial snow that decorates an imported tree. The most musical folks organize a “parranda”, which is a group of people who sing our native Christmas music. The least lazy people wake up very early in the morning of December twenty fifth to assist to “la misa de gallo” (“the rooster mass”), to pray and sing for Baby Jesus, celebrating his birthday. Roller skating in the streets is also very popular, and you don’t see it very often during the rest of the year.
We also cook “hallacas”, which is a delicious stuff that is hard to explain since I am a very bad cook, but that is made with corn dough and filled with all sort of things (meat, olives, bell peppers, chicken, pork, you name it!). It takes days to make, and my family prepares hundreds of them (or at least we used to).
Families get even closer during the Venezuelan Christmas. We cry for many reasons. A cousin that lives in other country shows up (this year, it is going to be me!). Mom remembers old times and we notice that Daddy is not with us anymore. The children are growing up and we feel old, but they are able to participate more in our traditions, and that feeling turns into happiness. We miss and we cry. We love and we cry. A river of happy and sad tears takes memories of our beloved ones in a little trip to our hearts. But the most important thing, even though we are far apart from each other, we dedicate this special season to the One who created us, and we pray, and we wish for peace, and we do not stop loving.
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