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Christmastime in Paraguay


Some people have asked us how Paraguayans celebrate Christmas. You know it’s Christmastime in Paraguay when:

1. You start receiving fruitcakes…from everyone and their brother.
2. Most folks head to the closest river to cool off!
3. The majority of stores and businesses put out an elaborate nativity scenes, pesebre, in their yard
4. Paraguayans hang the pungently fragrant coco flower on their porches
5. The Christmas bug (cicada) starts to come out and make its Christmas music. On a side note, Timmy is fascinated by this bug “la chicarra” and chases it all over the yard.
6. Families gather together for the feast of Noche Buena, Christmas Eve
7. You hear the bells ringing for midnight mass on Dec. 24.
8. Alcoholic cider is all over the place
9. People start buying presents the week of Christmas because they received their 13th (bonus) salary called an aguinaldo
10. When you start hearing fireworks you know it’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s

Whatever culture you celebrate your Christmas…the reason for the festivities remains the same. Happy Birthday Jesus!
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  1. AnonymousDecember 19, 2011 at 4:01 PM

    thank you for posting this about youre family its greatly helping me with a project that i am working on for my spanish class. i hope you dont mind thanks again

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 19, 2012 at 5:10 PM

    i'm also using this info for my spanish class thanks for the post!

    ReplyDelete

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