By Vanessa Arrington
The Associated Press
Posted January 8 2007
HAVANA ? Cuba's official youth newspaper on Sunday reported an increase
in sales of children's toys this year but warned against a rise in
consumerism on the communist-run island.
In a two-page spread, the Juventud Rebelde reported on the revival of
Three Kings Day, a Latin American tradition of giving gifts to children
on Jan. 6, commemorating the arrival of three wise men who offered the
newborn Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
"A tradition that seemed extinct in Cuban society rises again," the
state-run newspaper said. "Although no one sees celebrating the
millennial festivity of the Three Kings as heresy, the danger could be
in [the holiday] accentuating consumerist habits and social differences."
Christmas is a low-key affair in Cuba.
The government discouraged holiday celebrations for religious and
consumerist reasons for decades after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution,
but made Christmas a holiday in 1997 before a visit by Pope John Paul II
in 1998.
Christmas was declared a permanent holiday at the end of 1998, a
decision religious leaders embraced while also echoing concerns that it
would succumb to Western-style commercialization.
State-run department stores offer no special promotions or sales on toys
this time of year.
Those interviewed for the Juventud Rebelde article attributed the
increase of gift-giving in Cuba to the influence of globalization and
visits by Cuban-Americans and other natives living abroad.
"During these days one can hardly move around the toy department of
stores ... in the capital," the article said.
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