Midnight Mass 2012 in Cuba

December 26, 2012 | | Print Print |

Photo Feature by Elio Delgado Valdés

Midnight Mass at the Havana Cathedral.

HAVANA TIMES – In Cuba, a significant part of the population is Catholic. Some actively, systematically going to church and meet all the rites established by that religion, while others have varying levels of belief, but are not churchgoers.

Christmas is a religious holiday, but also a tradition celebrated by most Cubans, whether believers or not.

On Christmas Eve, the Catholic Church holds mass in all its parishes. This liturgy is performed at twelve o’clock to begin Christmas Day in prayer.

This year’s midnight mass was celebrated in the Havana Cathedral by Cardinal Jaime Ortega and the pastor of the community, attended by a large audience.

Click on the thumbnails below to view all the photos in this gallery


What's your opinion?

  • brianjmack

    Beautiful photos. I get a sense that the true meaning of Christmas reflects in those who attended Church
    in Havana. Peace

  • Moses

    These beautiful photos demonstrate the desire of Cubans to practice religion in a formal and traditional way. How paranoid and cruel are the Castros to have prevented this beautiful worship prior to 1998? And for what? One can only hope that as these tyrants get closer to facing their own mortality that they will see the error of their ways and continue to allow the Cuban people to seek their individual as well as religious freedoms.

    • Griffin

      Let us hope the choice to allow the Cuban people the freedom to practice their religion will no longer be made by a few.