Felìz Navidad y Felìz Año

Wishing all readers the happiest of time for the holidays. This is the culmination of the year and the looking forward to the new one. Everyone takes a gander into what has happened. The idea is to review the good times and learn from our mistakes. We take that knowledge with us to make the next year even better.

 With your help the Fenton Patch celebrated two years of delivering news to Fentonites. I have received joy in being a part of that and bringing readers glimpses into my world as well as looking at your world from different perspectives. But the best part is the wonderful feedback received from readers around the world. Now I look forward to another year of bringing readers interesting tidbits. Lined up are travel articles to more places around Colombia including Caribbean islands and museums.

 Here in Colombia we started out the season by lighting candles on December 7 to honor The Virgin Mary. On that day my wife and I, along with some friends were in the city of Melgar. The photo accompanying this article shows the many candles lit by residents of a group of homes. But throughout Colombia, at homes everywhere, the people lit candles.

 Colombians do not send out Christmas cards preferring to celebrate together. The praying of the Novena starts nine days before Christmas. This year we kicked off the first evening of prayers in front of the manger scene at our house with around 20 guests sharing food and drink. Following evenings found us at the homes of friends, manager scenes in a neighborhood and even at a mall. The baby Jesus is not put in his bed in the manger until the last reading of the Novena on his birthday.

 Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve. Children write letters ahead of time to the Baby Jesus to tell them what they would like. Over 50% of the Colombians earn less than $6,000 a year so presents are more quality than quantity when compared to the USA.

 Again the celebration is a family event. We are very fortunate this year to host at our home friends and family from Canada, Argentina, France and Singapore as well as around Colombia.

 To celebrate the New Year is also family coming together at a home. This is in great contrast to Americans who usually celebrate outside the house at a party frequently with strangers.

 Colombians have many traditions to bring good luck for the coming year. I wrote about those previously. Perhaps you may want to try a few for yourself.

 Merry Christmas everyone and wishing all the very best for 2013.