Getting The Christmas Spirit

Wed., Dec. 2, 1998

It was beginning to look a little like Christmas on Tuesday in hotel lobbies and stores (above) in Havana, where the public display of Christmas trees was a virtual taboo until a year ago. Christmas is back as an official, permanent national holiday in communist Cuba for the first time since 1969. In a decision reported on the entire front page of Granma the Communist Party’s official organ, it is Cuba’s only daily newspaper the Politburo announced that the need to suspend the religious holiday has passed. “Beginning this year,” it said, “every Dec. 25 from now on is considered a holiday for Christians and non-Christians, believers and nonbelievers.” Cuba’s Roman Catholic Church responded swiftly, expressing gratitude.

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Getting The Christmas Spirit

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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