By Anita Snow, .c The Associated Press
HAVANA, 2 (AP) - The traditional Three Kings returned to Cuba on Sunday after slowly disappearing decades ago as the annual sugar harvest and Karl Marx took precedence over centuries-old church festivals.
Several hundred Cuban Catholics applauded as three Puerto Rican men wrapped in the brocaded robes and capes of Melchor, Baltazar and Gaspar rose the steps of Havana's towering cathedral for a Mass celebrated by Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
With Christmas hymns and clouds of incense, the Wise Men strode toward the altar as the visiting Roman Catholic group from Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico, shared its island's annual holiday celebration with the congregation.
Later, they kissed a baby boy playing the role of the Christ child and prostrated themselves on the floor before him.
Three Kings Day is a mystery to most Cuban children, as well as most of their parents.
In most Latin countries, it is Three Kings Day on Jan. 6 - not Dec. 24 or 25 - that small children receive their Christmas gifts. Many Christians believe the Wise Men who brought gifts to Jesus exemplify devotion and generosity.
The Three Kings are especially beloved in Puerto Rico, where they are celebrated in popular paintings and sculpture.
Ortega, Cuba's top Catholic churchman, encouraged children not to ask the kings for material things but for spiritual things of greater value - peace in their families, good friends.
As for the grownups, the prelate encouraged them to ``believe in stars'' - to have the kind of wonder and faith the Three Kings of biblical tradition expressed 2000 years ago as they followed the bright, shining star that led them to the Christ child.
Four-year-old Maria Fernandez's eyes grew wide as the kings strode by the pews, greeting small children as they walked by.
``She was very excited,'' said the girl's mother, Marta Dararas, 36. ``Our family never lost these traditions, but they were interrupted for most people for many years. I imagine with time they can return.''
The primary mission of the visiting Puerto Rican group is to promote Three Kings Day celebrations, still observed in Spain and many parts of Latin America on Jan. 6.
It has also traveled to the Dominican Republic and New York. This is its first visit to Cuba.
Three Kings Day celebrations - along with most Christmastime festivities - slowly disappeared in Cuba after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.
Cuba's communist government was then more concerned with having enough manpower for the annual sugar harvests than with holiday celebrations it associated with the middle and upper classes.
The government declared itself atheist in the mid-1960s. Religious worship was never banned, but believers were viewed as suspect or even strange.
But religious expression has become increasingly accepted in Cuba over the past decade. In 1992, the government declared itself a lay state, loosening restrictions on religious worship and allowing believers to belong to the Communist Party.
The celebration of Christmas got a boost in December 1997, when the government declared Dec. 25 an official holiday to honor the January 1998 visit by Pope John Paul II to the island. The day has since been declared a permanent holiday.
In keeping with the spirit of giving, about 30 members of the Puerto Rican group brought donated packages of medicine for local children's hospitals.
The kings will also visit several other Catholic congregations before returning to Puerto Rico on Tuesday.
AP-NY-01-02-00 1500EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press |