Thursday, January 6, 2005

A note on Christmas in Latin America

The "twelve days of Christmas" ended yesterday (Dec. 6).  But I thought I would post this anyway.  It's an excerpt from a column which talks a bit about the different customs surrounding Christmas in various Latin American countries.  The first paragraph quoted here is a bit quirky, but I included it anyway.

La época más maravillosa del año  por Ricardo Galarza Tiempo 12/23/04

Navidad se llamó el fuerte construido por Colón en la isla La Española con los restos de la "Santa María", durante su primer viaje a América. Desde entonces, la Navidad ha formado parte intrínseca de nuestro acervo cultural y de nuestro complejo mosaico identitario como hispanoamericanos, hijos de una España, entonces, profundamente católica y una rama indígena que resultó en un verdadero crisol de creencias, rituales y divinidades religiosas, que a su modo fueron permeando la llamada cristianización de nuestro continente.

Así, al igual que los diferentes pueblos somos devotos de diferentes Vírgenes (Guadalupe, patrona de México; la Virgen de La Paz, patrona de El Salvador; Nuestra Señora de la Merced, patrona del Perú; la Virgen de Chiquinquirá, patrona de Colombia, o la Virgen del Luján, patrona de Argentina, entre otras), también llamamos con diferentes nombres al patrón de los niños, ese que en Estados Unidos llaman Santa Claus.

En México, en Puerto Rico y otras partes también lo llaman Santa Claus, pero en Venezuela le dicen San Nicolás. En Argentina, Colombia, Perú y Uruguay, en cambio, lo llaman Papá Noel. Aunque en Colombia y Costa Rica el que trae los regalos no es Papá Noel, sino el Niño Jesús. Y el nombre, acaso, más novedoso sea el chileno, donde lo llaman " El Viejo Pascuero" (¡no es broma!). De manera que aquí en Estados Unidos todos los latinos lo llamamos diferente, pero para todos cumple la misma función: traerle regalos a nuestros niños.

Translation:
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The most wonderful time of the year

Christmas was the name of the fort constructed by Columbus  on the island La Española with the wreckage of the "Santa María," during his first trip to America.  Since then, Christmas has formed an intrinsic part of our cultural heritage and of our complex mosaic identity as Latin Americans, children of a Spain that was, then, profoundly Catholic and of an indigenous branch that resulted in a true melting pot of beliefs, rituals and religious deities [?!], which in their way were permeated with the call of Christianizing [!?] our continent.

That's how it is, regardless of whether our different peoples are devoted to different Virgins (Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico; the Virgin of La Paz, patron saint of El Salvador; Our Lady of Merced, patron saint of Peru; the Virgin of Chiquinquirá, patron saint of Columbia, or the Virgin of Luján, patron saint of Argentina, among others), we also have different names for the patron saint of the children, the one that is called Santa Claus in the United States.

In Mexico, in Puerto Rico and other areas also he is called Santa Claus, but in Venezuela they say Saint Nicolaus.  Whereas in Argentina, Columbia, Peru and Uruguay, his name is Papa Noel.  Even if in Columbia and Costa Rica, the one that brings the gifts is not Papa Noel but Baby Jesus.  And the name that is perhaps the most novel is the Chilean, where he is called "Old Man Christmas" (it's not a joke!).  So here in the United States all the Latinos call him something different, but he carries out the same function for us all: he brings presents to our children.
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So that's how Santa Claus gets all those presents delivered on Christmas Eve.  He outsources part of the job to all these other guys!

If anyone has an alternative translation of "El Viejo Pascuero," please share it with me in the comments.

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