Heart and Soul: A Colombian Christmas in February

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the heart of Colombia, very special Christmas celebrations take place not in December but in February. Its roots lie in the days of slavery when many Afro-Colombians were serving their masters' festivities during that time. In an act of cultural and racial resistance that has been preserved for nearly 200 years, Christmas celebrations in Quinamayo are held 40 days after the traditional birth date of Jesus and the amount of time that the Virgin Mary is said to have rested after delivery, and right after the end of harvest season. Christina Noreiga asks how the celebrations came about and why they have a special magic for both young and old.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Christina Nurega and I'm here in Kina Mayo in the southwestern province of Vageal
0:06.2	Kauka in Colombia. All around me are twinkling lights, festive cheer, colorful streamers, and a lot of music. It's February 16th and everybody is
0:18.8	excited for tomorrow Christmas Day. Hello and welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:29.0	This is Heart and Soul where we explore personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.
0:34.9	For this episode, a Colombian Christmas and February, I have flown from the capital Bogota
0:40.2	to the town of Kinamajo, where I've come to join the celebrations.
0:43.5	Together with photographer Jayir Cole,
0:45.5	we are going to find out why these festivities happen now and why here.
0:50.0	Professor Manuel Se Vigia is an anthropologist at Kalis-Haveriana University.
0:55.0	As for Kina Mago, it is a small town nearby the city of Hamundi, which is one of the largest cities in Vail Kauka, I would say is the fourth largest city in our department.
1:07.0	And Kina Mago itself, it's surrounded in a large portion by Sugar Cane Field, so a lot of the people there work in the
1:15.8	sugar can field. Some of them work in sugar companies as well, people who work in
1:21.5	shops in health services.
1:25.0	A lot of them also commute on a daily basis either to Hamondi or to the city of Kali to work here in all sort of services.
1:37.0	I'm in the center of Pinamayo and people are gathered here tonight for a special performance that is expected to kick off the four-day
1:46.4	festival. The women are dressed in white-lowy dresses and colorful turb turbines, the young men and women are dressed in all black.
1:58.0	Their maces are painted with white tribal marks.
2:04.0	There's even a brass orchestra
2:07.0	that is preparing for a fulgang,
2:10.0	a traditional Afro-Colombian genre here.
2:17.0	I've been traveling with Colombian photographer Jayir Cole who has been following the story of
2:26.8	Kina Mayo and its celebration of the Black Baby Jesus for many years now.
	...

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