Why This Town Has Celebrated Christmas in February for Nearly 200 Years
The Afro-Colombian residents of Quinamayó have followed a unique tradition: celebrating Christmas 40 days after the traditional date, a custom begun under the subjugation of slavery.
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Dancing during Christmas celebrations in Quinamayó, Colombia, last month.
Photographs by Jaír F. Coll
Written by Genevieve Glatsky
Jaír F. Coll and Genevieve Glatsky traveled to Quinamayó, Colombia, to document the town’s four-day Afro-Colombian Christmas festival.
March 30, 2023
The Christmas trees, twinkling lights, and red and green streamers were up, and the main street was lined with tents selling sausages and popcorn, as horse-drawn carts clopped by.
It looked like a typical Christmas festival street scene — except it was February.
Every year, Quinamayó, a town of about 6,000 in southwestern Colombia, observes a tradition that dates back to the era of slavery and has persisted as a way to turn a history of oppression and suffering into a celebration of joy.
On a Saturday night in February, the festival’s main procession began with a group of women in traditional ruffled floral dresses, walking through the moonlit streets. They were soon joined by girls in grass skirts, representing Indigenous groups that Quinamayó’s Black residents consider as part of their shared history of slavery.
In the early 1800s, the town’s Afro-Colombian population was enslaved and forced to work through December, attending to slaveholders’ holiday festivities. So Christmas was celebrated 40 days after the traditional birth date of Jesus — the amount of time that the Virgin Mary is said to have rested after delivery, and right after the end of harvest season.
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Girls playing the role of angels waiting their turn to join the Christmas procession.
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Members of a dance group dressing for their performance. Quinamayó’s resident have developed new customs that emerged under the subjugation of slavery.
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Jeinny Lucumí, 9, as the Virgin Mary and Sofía Peña, 9, as an angel.
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