If you are still planning your week, put up the first Christmas mass in your agenda. The novenas to the Child Jesus, the catholic name for the celebrations that traditionally attract so many Madeirans, start in the early morning of December 15th, in some parishes, or 16th, in most of the island’s parishes. Despite the fact that these traditions go back to the early settling of the island, they didn’t always fascinate people as they do in the early 21st century, with huge crowds going to the churches – or, more precisely, to the forecourt of the churches.
Because it’s not only the mass. There’s the band, frequently singing, firecrackers, and the lighting of the church and its environs, with all the liveliness which is actually what people seek, around rather than in the churches. There are also the feasts where emigrants, after getting rich abroad, promise to pay all the expenses of the novenas – but usually those that get up early for the masses, the first act in the Madeiran Christmas, don’t even know about this.
Just like in the summer, Madeirans go to the most famous and popular masses, and spread candid pictures of the events, day after day, in the social networks, creating their own novenas of pictures and ponchas and liqueurs that they had – even before they started working.
