The great attraction these days in Havana is the recently inaugurated Christmas tree in Fe del Valle Park, in Centro Habana, on its side of Galiano street. The pine tree, tall and not very leafy, gains energy at night, when its decoration is lit.
Dozens of people crowded around him this Wednesday, many of them with children, smiling and looking for the pose for the best photo. “I understand it, because we are not used to it,” commented a woman sitting on one of the park benches.
At the age of 45, he had never seen a tree of these characteristics on public roads in Cuba, the most common symbol, moreover, of Christmas festivities in almost any other place in the world.
The Germanic tradition of decorating a coniferous tree with spheres and garlands -a pine or a fir-, popularized throughout Europe from the 19th century and universally exported by American culture -with strong German roots, as is known-, has been frowned upon since the beginning of the Revolution.
Those born before the end of the last century know that having a Christmas tree, even in the privacy of the house, was seen as an “ideological deviation”, something petty-bourgeois, dangerously close to enemy imperialism.
In 1995, even, the Government issued a circular prohibiting the installation of these objects in official or government enclaves. (attributed to Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, was called by her as “the man of the trees”). Although reality prevailed, and private businesses that do not have this type of decoration at the end of December are rare, until now the public thoroughfare had never shown it.
Hence the astonishment this week of the Havanans before the gigantic Galiano pine. “Do it for me here, it looks better”, “Look, better this way!” People shouted with joy, placing their mobiles and posing. The Fe del Valle tree seems to be the only bright element in this dark New Year’s Eve on the Island, in which inflation, which makes it very difficult to put food on the table in keeping with the festivities, and sadness, due to so many relatives who They have emigrated, drowning Cuban houses.
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