Friday, February 13, 2009

In Venezuela, Christmas is celebrated with a number of religious and traditional customs. As a predominantly Catholic country, Christmas festivities celebrate the birth of the child Jesus. The religious celebrations begin on the 16th of December with masses said every morning until December 24th, when the religious service is held at midnight (Misa de Gallo). The main celebration takes place on Christmas Eve, "Noche Buena" as it is called in Spanish. Families get together to enjoy the traditional holiday meal: "hallacas," "pan de jamón," "dulce de lechoza." The pan de "jamón" is a long bread filled with cooked ham and raisins. The "dulce de lechoza" is a dessert made of green papaya and brown sugar, slowly cooked for hours and served cold. Many homes put up a Christmas tree but the most authentic Venezuelan custom is to display a nacimiento (Nativity scene). A more sophisticated nacimiento is the pesebre. This represents an entire region with mountains, hills, plains and valleys. The central point is a replica of the manger at Bethlehem. The structure is a framework covered with canvas and painted accordingly. Often, the pesebre becomes a real work of art. On December 25 children awake to find their gifts around the Nacimiento or the Christmas tree. Tradition has it that it is the Child Jesus who brings gifts to the Venezuelan children instead of Santa Claus. The Christmas festivities come to an official closing on January 6, the Day of the Reyes Magos (the three wise kings who came to visit Mary and the infant Jesus), when children again receive toys and candies. Christmas is, above all, the main holiday during which Venezuelan families get together and rejoice. Music plays an important role in the celebrations. The traditional songs of this period are called aguinaldos. In the old days the aguinalderos (singers of aguinaldos) would go from home to home singing their songs and playing traditional instruments such as the cuatro (a small, four strings guitar), the maracas (rattle) and the furruco (a small, elongated drum with a wooden stick in the middle. The movement of the stick slightly indented on the drums leather is what produces the sound).
Thursday, February 12, 2009
<- President of VenezuelaWhen Columbus explored Venezuela on his third voyage in 1498, the area was inhabited by Arawak, Carib, and Chibcha Indians. A subsequent Spanish explorer gave the country its name, meaning “Little Venice.” Caracas was founded in 1567. Simón Bolívar, who led the liberation from Spain of much of the continent, was born in Caracas in 1783. With Bolívar taking part, Venezuela was one of the first South American colonies to revolt in 1810, winning independence in 1821. Federated at first with Colombia and Ecuador as the Republic of Greater Colombia, Venezuela became a republic in 1830. A period of unstable dictatorships followed. Antonio Guzman Blanco governed from 1870 to 1888, developing an infrastructure, expanding agriculture, and welcoming foreign investment. Gen. Juan Vicente Gómez was dictator from 1908 to 1935, when Venezuela became a major oil exporter. A military junta ruled after his death. Leftist Dr. Rómulo Betancourt and the Democratic Action Party won a majority of seats in a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution in 1946. A well-known writer, Rómulo Gallegos, candidate of Betancourt's party, became Venezuela's first democratically elected president in 1947. Within eight months, Gallegos was overthrown by a military-backed coup led by Marcos Peréz Jiménez, who was ousted himself in 1958. Since 1959, Venezuela has been one of the most stable democracies in Latin America. Betancourt served from 1959–1964, while Rafael Caldera Rodríguez, president from 1969 to 1974, legalized the Communist Party and established diplomatic relations with Moscow. Venezuela benefited from the oil boom of the early 1970s. In 1974, President Carlos Andrés Pérez took office, and in 1976 Venezuela nationalized foreign-owned oil and steel companies, offering compensation. Luis Herrera Campíns became president in 1978. Declining world oil prices sent Venezuela's economy into a tailspin, increasing the country's foreign debt. Pérez was reelected to a nonconsecutive term in 1988 and launched an unpopular austerity program. Military officers staged two unsuccessful coup attempts in 1992, while the following year Congress impeached Pérez on corruption charges. President Rafael Caldera Rodríguez was elected in Dec. 1993 to face the 1994 collapse of half of the country's banking sector, falling oil prices, foreign debt repayment, and inflation. In 1997, the government announced an expansion of gold and diamond mining to reduce reliance on oil.
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