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Sunday, November 25, 2012

What are some Creole Christmas games that children or adults like to play?

Christmas IS a festive time in Haiti.
Christians and non-Christians celebrate it (in their own way).  I do remember that it was more "gleeful" when I was younger.
There are no traditional Christmas games that adults and children play, that I know of.
At Christmas time in Haiti, a lot of children play with pidetwal or peta (roman candles).  You'll see them running in their yard with these pidetwal especially on Christmas Eve.
A lot of churches host nativity plays or pageants.  They also have raffles so that some kids may win games and toys.  Raffles are pretty common at Christmas time.


In the outskirts of the country kids and adults make fanal (paper lanterns of beautiful colors) and used them as light source.
The streets at night may be busier than usual, since many peole who live in the remote areas of the hills travel to the bouk, villages, or city to participate in midnight mass.


At Christmas time, many Haitians in Haiti used to give their houses a fresh coat of paint.  Other people would thoroughly clean their houses inside and out with basilic leaves, as this is the end of the year, and they want to rid their homes of any bad luck or misfortune that the current year had brought. 

It is also the time where some people participate in vodou ceremonies either to renew a pact with the lwa (gods) or to make a yearly offering.

And of course, there's the  reveyon, the all-night Christmas eve parties where they serve all sorts of food and lots of alcohol, and grown-ups play domino and bezig until they can't see straight anymore.
It used to be a perfect time for kids to be kids and take advantage of all the alcohol laying around, experimenting with drinking and smoking for their first time.

My aunt used to complain that young people have a little bit more freedom on Christmas Eve while their grown-ups are eating, drinking, and forgetting themselves.  And you'll see the result of that when more babies than usual  are born the following September. 

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