Christmas is wonderful time of year! As we approach our first Christmas in Guatemala, I thought I would share what we are seeing and learning about Christmas here.
Much is the same:
In some ways Guatemala looks very much like Christmas at home. There are Christmas decorations all over town with the decorated Christmas trees and lights we are used to seeing at home. The stores are decked out in Christmas decorations just like we see at home. There is a huge Christmas tree (mechanical one, not a real one) in the plaza at the Obelisco, and Christmas programs are all around us just like at home. We watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional (via BYU TV) just like we do every year at home. We had a wonderful Christmas devotional and luncheon at the Montúfar chapel yesterday for all the Church employees and the Senior Missionaries who work in the Area Office. It was beautiful and very much like home. We attended a Christmas party for our ward last night, just like we would have done at home. We will have an Office Christmas party on Monday for the legal office. Things really slow down at Christmas time, just like at home. We have a small decorated tree in our apartment, and we listen to Christmas music every day. We are excited to have Robert and his family visit us at Christmas time.
But some things are very different:
It is sunny and nice every day here, more like a Christmas in Hawaii than what we were used to in Salt Lake. At our ward Christmas party last night, we had very tough, thin beef and chorizos (a spicy sausage), frijoles (refried black beans), rice, corn tortillas, salad, and horchata to drink. It was a typical Guatemalan meal. All over town there are stands selling fireworks, mountains of fireworks, and every night there are fireworks going off all over the city. This will culminate on Christmas Eve (Nochebuena) with a spectacular fireworks show all over the city at midnight, or so I am told. At first this seemed quite a strange way to celebrate Christmas to me. We certainly don't have that tradition at home. But as in all traditions, there is some truth underlying it all. In the night before He was born there was no darkness on this land; it was as light as at mid-day. And a new star was seen in the sky. This Christmas Eve the people here will light up the sky all night with their fireworks. He is the Light of the World, and they will celebrate His birth with lights in the sky.
All over town, we see traffic stopped as processions walk down the streets carrying one of their Saints, the Virgin of Guadalupe or the Virgin Mary or another. This is a very Catholic tradition and quite strange to us. We are told that on Christmas Eve, families will gather and eat mountains of tomales and drink "ponche" their traditional hot fruit punch. Late that night after the fireworks, the children will open their Christmas gifts. Both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day along with New Years Eve and New Years Day are holidays. I'm sure there will be many other things this Christmas that will be new to us.
But for us, this Christmas will be like all Christmases, a special time to remember Our Saviors birth and worship Him. He is the gift of Christmas, and we love this special time of year when the world joins us in Honoring Him. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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