Christmas Begins

While those of you stateside are reaching the end of the Christmas season, those of us in the VI are like most of the western world - Christmas is just beginning.  While we've had a few Christmas events (such as the boat parade), we actually celebrate the twelve days of Christmas.

The twelve days of Christmas are not the days leading up to Christmas, but actually begin the day after Christmas, on Boxing Day and continue through Three Kings Day - which is the day of St. Croix's Carnival - while not as famous as Brazil's Carnival, it is the first Carnival of the year!

Christmas down here is different.  The Virgin Islands are "poor" compared to the rest of the United States.  In fact the AGI is $10,000 less than that of Mississippi (which is below the poverty level).  However, like most islands of the Caribbean, you will never meet a "poor" Crucian. 

I've said before that priorities here are different.  I know a lady (a snowbird) who is a nurse.  She works six months for hospice in Massachusetts and six months for hospice down here.  Hospice has struggled to make in roads down here, because people believe in caring for their own.  The nurse was blown away by one patient who had been bed-ridden for three years and had never once had a bed sore.  The house had a dirt floor, but the woman received better care than Johns Hopskins could provide.

Christmas is less commercial.  You go to Kmart and people are dancing in the aisles to the calypso Christmas carols.  People are actually joyful.  Maybe it is time for the rest of the world to take a lesson from St. Croix - and our definition of "poor." 

Like I said.  Christmas is just beginning.  I'm looking forward to twelve days of celebration, good cheer, and sincere joy.  I wish the rest of you could experience this.