BOLIVIA: Bolivians celebrate Christmas with traditional song and dance and Nativity scenes

Record ID: 743558

  • Title: BOLIVIA: Bolivians celebrate Christmas with traditional song and dance and Nativity scenes
  • Date: 25th December 2008
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DANCERS
  • Embargoed: 9th January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA8GRTVDW4VZLJDA0ODILN4W0R9
  • Story Text: Trees, gifts and Santa Claus are relatively new to the Bolivian Christmas.
    And some Bolivians are looking to return to the Bolivian Christmas of old, with traditional song and dance, humble foods, and a focus on one Bolivian woman's collection of artisan nativities at the heart of the celebration.
    The image of a Christmas tree and gifts underneath may be one of comfort to families the world over, but to a group of Bolivians, it is a recent import removed from traditional customs.
    While Christmas has long been celebrated in the landlocked South American country, which was colonized by the Spanish in the 16th century, the festivities traditionally centered around a humble plate of food served after midnight, carol singing and adoration of the nativity scene emphasizing the baby Jesus's impoverished beginnings.
    To recapture the Bolivian Christmas of old, which was devoid of trees, presents and Santa Claus, a group of Bolivians in La Paz organized a retro-Christmas in 2008, that began with an orchestral performance.
    An ensemble of Bolivian-style mandolins, percussion, strings and wind performed classic national carols drawn from 19th and 20th Century scores, including the chutunki rhythm popular at the turn of the 20th Century.
    Music director Orlando Encinas noted the roots of the musical selection.

    "They are compositions and compilations that were made from the oldest songs of popular music, of carols, that we've collected from the 19th and 20th Century," he said.
    The music was accompanied by children adoring the baby Jesus, on hand to commemorate the midnight birth.
    Bolivia, South America's poorest country with a population of some 11 million, has one of the most contemporaneously vibrant indigenous traditions on a continent long ago subjugated by Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors.
    The strength of indigenous culture even gets infused at Christmas with children's' outfits reflecting native Aymara styles.
    Also taking part in the celebration was one Bolivian woman who has taken it upon herself over the course of 20 years to collect artisan nativities at the heart of the celebration.
    While living in Mexico, Rocio Silva de Caijas began her collection that now includes some 70 nativities representing 17 countries.
    On display in La Paz was a Bolivian nativity, made from the motacu silver native to Bolivia.
    Also being shown was a Peruvian nativity, which had an ornate design featuring three ancient kings from pre-Columbian lore, who had long necks much like the llamas that populate the Andean region.
    De Caijas herself was present to display her nativities, which also included a sweets-based German nativity designed in Romanesque style, as well as others from El Salvador and Nigeria, which were carved from wood and featured an ancient family of pastors.
    De Caijas said the nativities held a special place in her childhood.

    "When I was 10 years old, the little ones would come by to ask to adore the baby Jesus in my house. That has been lost," she said.
    Also showing off cribs from Mexico and Guatemala, de Caijas explained their place in national Christmas celebrations.

    "I think that it's a little bit of tradition, and another way of looking at the life and the birth rather than with a (Christmas) tree,"
    she said.
    Holiday celebrations in Bolivia continue on January 6, the Day of the Kings, when the baby Jesus is to be honored at the Virgin de la Asunta Cathedral with more singing and dancing.
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