The first and probably most obvious difference you’d expect
between the English and Chilean Christmases is the weather. In Chile, Christmas
takes place in summer, a time when temperatures in Cholchol normally reach up
to 30°C! However, this year – it decided to be a lot more like an English
summer… and rain. This did actually make the atmosphere feel a lot more
Christmassy for us at least!
The weeks leading up to Christmas were, much like the UK,
filled with crowded Christmas shopping (the lack of Christmas lights in Temuco
being the only let down on this point!) and carol services.
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| the final assembly/prizegiving |
In School, it was the end of the school year, as well as
breaking up for Christmas and so there were several ‘ceremonias’ over the last
couple of weeks including the ‘promociones’ of the Kinder curso (who are now
moving up into the Basico section of the school) and Octavo Basico (who are now
moving up into the Medio section of the school) as well as the school
prizegiving.
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| girls in 6to Basico at their convidencia |
There was also various ‘convidencias’ which we attended with
everyone from some of the classes, our colleagues, church and even our aerobics
class. These all basically consist of a meal or ‘sharing’ of some kind to
celebrate the end of the year. The last few weeks have involved a lot of food!
On the evening of 22nd December we attended the
‘Culto de Navidad’ (Christmas Service) at church. This involved several pieces
by choirs, the Sunday school group and the youth group as well as carols and
the normal stuff found in carol services. My partner and I took part in the
nativity with the youth group. I agreed the week before to be the angel that
appears to Joseph and as a result had to memorise an entire Spanish paragraph!
Panic!
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| The angel and the star - ready for our spanish acting debut :) |
“José, Hijo de David. No temas recibir a Maria por esposa. Porque ella ha concebido por obra
del Espíritu Santo. Dará luz un hijo, y le pondrás por nombre Jesús, porque él
salvará al pueblos de sus pecados. Él será el Rey, el Hijo de Dios.”
Luckily – after rehearsing the words constantly over a period
of days, I miraculously managed to pull it off without a hitch! Much to the
surprise of Joseph himself! It was a very proud moment.
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| la cena de Navidad :) |
The other major point about Chilean Christmas is that it is
celebrated on the night of the 24th, not on the 25th. We
were lucky enough to be invited to spend Christmas with our Chilean family and
so on the night of the 24th, about 7 O’clock we went round to their
house with our sackful of presents! We had a very lovely ‘cena’ which consisted
of a starter of “Palta Reina” (an avocado half filled with some kind of
chicken/mayonnaise combo on a bed of lettuce), followed by turkey cooked in a
mushroom source, with crochet potatoes and a huge array of various salads, and
then brownie and ice cream for pudding.
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| present time!!! :D |
The next few hours were spent trying to digest some of the
food and singing xmas songs (we taught them several in English and also sung
some Spanish ones). Once midnight struck, the presents were doled out and all
opened. We left about 2am and headed on
the 30 second walk back home before collapsing into bed.
We were then back at the Ortiz’s by midday the next day for
a very late breakfast of waffles. The day was spent very chilled,
watching TV and skyping my family. We had lunch about half 4 and then las once
at about 9:00! It was a very good day and a nice, relaxing break, and though it
didn’t have quite the same feel as an English family Christmas, it was a good
experience and definitely a good insight into other cultures and the different
meanings of celebrations such as Christmas in different parts of the world.
And now there’s only 3 days until we head up to Valporaíso
for New Year with all the other volunteers and then off on our summer travels!
Exciting times ahead!
Hannah :)
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