For Rita Karina Loza Cifuentes, the most important part of celebrating Christmas is its spiritual aspect.
Loza Cifuentes, 51, was born and raised in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Christmas celebrations are important for people in her home country, she said, with the main focus on celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Celebrations start with novenas when people gather to pray.
“We pray for every single thing that there is. First, for the church, the Pope, the priest, the nuns. The peace for the poor, for the sick, for the lonely, for the ones that are in jail, for the ones living on the streets. For the ones that are without faith, for the family, for the conversion of the members of the family who are straying away, usually teenagers,” Loza Cifuentes said. “We pray for faith, for strength and for the cross.”
When novenas start, all friends and family gather at someone’s house to pray. The next day, they go to another house and so on, until Christmas Eve. They attend nine houses — one for each day — and on the last day, Dec. 24, they pray the novena and have a big Christmas celebration, said Loza Cifuentes.
“Every day, every night, every house you go, they will have something for you to eat, to drink after the praying,” she said.
At midnight on Dec. 24, people would go to church, she said, and every church would be filled to capacity. After that, they would go home and have dinner, dance and celebrate.
Only children under 12 receive presents, which they are allowed to open on Christmas morning.
“We also make bags of candy, cookies, nuts, everything you can imagine. And to me, more (important) than the present was that bag of candy because in Ecuador parents are usually strict with their children,” she said. “Everybody gets that bag.”
Before putting up a Christmas tree, families also make nativity scenes and recreate Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, according to the Bible.
Loza Cifuentes said she misses the way Christmas is marked in Ecuador where people focus on Jesus Christ, not gifts.
“It is more warm. It is less hectic with presents and everybody concentrates more on having the family over, praying,” she said. “When you pray, you sing special songs, they will give you the maracas and when you’re singing to baby Jesus, all the kids would be making all kind of music while we pray. I miss it."
Loza Cifuentes first moved to Canada in 1992 at the age of 22.
She moved to Timmins from Mississauga in September 2001, after she had opened 241 Pizza in Timmins in 1994.
Since moving to the city, Loza Cifuentes hasn’t changed the way she celebrates Christmas. She would celebrate it with her employees, make some Ecuadorian dishes and candy bags, go to church and then have celebrations at home with her family and friends from countries like Mexico, Chile, Nicaragua, Peru or Venezuela.
“We go to church on the 24th, we open presents on the 25th,” she said. “And on the 25th, you’d go to church, too.”
In Timmins, Loza Cifuentes attends Sacred Heart Church or St. Anthony of Padua Cathedral.
For Loza Cifuentes, it is important to pass down her traditions to her two children. Her husband Ahmad is Muslim from Iran, so the family also celebrates Nowruz, a celebration of New Year on March 21.
“Love is blind,” she said, smiling. “For us, it was very important for kids to have God in their lives. So, we had that talk and I told him if he’s willing to do that, we’ll be fine. My husband doesn’t practise his religion, so my kids are Catholic.”
Up until last year, she would also celebrate Las Posadas with the local Mexican community. Because of COVID-19 and because many Mexicans left the city, this year's Christmas celebrations will be at home and online, Loza Cifuentes said.
