-Jan-2001 -- EWTN News
Brief
HAVANA, (CWNews.com) - Communist Cuba's state-controlled media criticized an
Epiphany parade organized by Spain's embassy on Friday, calling it an imported
capitalist show to mislead children.
Cuban state television and an official newspaper slammed as "scarecrows,"
"clowns" and "insulting types" the Spanish diplomats and
businessmen who dressed up to represent the Magi to throw sweets to children in
downtown Havana on Saturday. The parade of the Three Kings riding in horse-drawn
coaches was organized by the Spanish Embassy's Cultural Center in Havana. It was
approved by the Cuban authorities and had a police motorcycle escort.
While the Feast of the Epiphany is a major feast day in Hispanic Catholic
countries, the holiday has not been celebrated since Fidel Castro's 1959
Communist revolution.
After showing footage of children scrambling for the sweets, a commentator
on Cuban state TV said, "These scenes that we have seen show the difference
between the capitalist and the socialist conceptions of the respect and dignity
with which children should be educated."
Spanish diplomats said no offense was intended and that the embassy has held
two similar events in recent years. | 