New Year's Eve in Cuba

Spending New Year’s Eve in Cuba is a great way to get to know the people and traditions of this beautiful country. Since Cubans not only celebrate the start of a new year but also the triumph of the Revolution on 1st of January it is one of the biggest festivals the country has to offer. It is impossible to get away from the singing, dancing and the music always prevalent even on ordinary days but especially so when there is a party. Many Cubans will celebrate at home which can become a huge gathering where traditionally a roast pig is served. There are often free concerts in the main squares of many towns and bigger dance parties in nightclubs and on beaches where all Cuban dances can be seen although these type of parties can be very touristic by nature. Nonetheless, it is a great way to practise the Cuban dances you know and dance away to the sounds of authentic Cuban rhythms in an atmosphere that seems impossible to copy to other parts of the planet.

Cubans generally enjoy collective eating at New Year’s Eve and large official dinner parties were held especially in the post-revolutionary years on this date. In recent years this tradition is followed mainly by the biggest dinner gala at Cathedral Square in Old Havana and more and more restaurants and nightclubs will organise special dinner parties and shows as well to celebrate this occasion. Outside of well-known international features such as lighting fireworks, Cuba has many traditions on its own which makes this day even more fun to celebrate in Cuba. One of the traditions seen is the practice of eating 12 grapes at midnight representing the 12 months of the year which are then washed down with a sparkling alcoholic drink, traditionally sidra.
The official ceremony starts when a 12-gun salute is sounded from the Cabaña Fortress at which point other traditions are seen such as the custom of throwing a bucket of dirty water with which the whole house has been cleaned into the street, representing all the negative aspects of the past year that are being expelled. Other customs include an envelope of dollars that Cubans put into their own mailbox to attract prosperity for the coming year or walking around the block while waving goodbye to neighbours and holding a suitcase if they want to travel to a place abroad in the new year.

Rueda Hand Signs (Part 10) Coca Cola (Con La Mano Izquierda)

Coca Cola is one of the oldest moves in Cuban salsa and one of the elementary moves that need to be mastered before moving on to more complex turns as it is part of many advanced moves such as Abanico Complicado Y Coca Cola, Kentucky Complicado, El Matrix, La Cuadra, etc.
There are many debates around where the name for this move comes from but it is generally accepted that it was called “La Botella” in Cuba originally which means “the bottle” in Spanish. Many Cubans will still call this move Botella although internationally the move has become better known under the name Coca Cola. One of the origin stories of the move name proposes that it comes from the way the second C is written in the stylised brand name of the drink Coca Cola as it follows closely the pathway the follower takes when doing the move.

Coca Cola, despite being an elementary move, is one of the hardest moves to grasp initially and it is often done wrongly even by advanced dancers. Both leaders and followers struggle with this move for different reasons which is why we only teach it at level 3 at Tiempo España Dance Academy rather than level 2 together with most of the other elementary moves such as Vacilala, Exhibela and Enchufla.
It is the most that followers will have to turn in the initial stages but what makes this move difficult for a lot of people is the fact that followers will have to turn and travel at the same time rather than just turn on the spot. Turning & travelling is nothing special in Cuban salsa, on the contrary, it is one of the key elements that distinguishes Cuban salsa from other types of dance and specifically Cross-body salsa where on the spot turns are much more common. However, it is one of the things that many people need to get used to first and the move Coca Cola is usually the introduction to this concept. Similarly, many leaders will just lift their hand expecting the follower to turn while hardly moving themselves, however, to do Coca Cola well they should follow their partner around while doing the move instead of staying on the spot.


The hand sign for Coca Cola Con La Mano Izquierda uses the left hand forming a fist with the thumb and little finger pointing away from the fist to symbolise a (coke) bottle. The fist is slightly tilted so that the little finger points upwards and the thumb point towards the caller’s mouth at which point the hand is shaken (it is irrelevant how many times you shake the hand) to symbolise someone drinking a coke.

To see a video of the move Coca Cola as well as the hand sign, please click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzNsHZ68SjE

Feliz Navidad

Christmas celebrations officially ceased in Cuba when Fidel Castro declared the country an atheist state in 1969 and banned this festival from being celebrated. When pope John Paul II visited Cuba in January 1998, after Fidel Castro had visited him in the Vatican two years earlier, relations significantly improved between the catholic church and Cuba. Despite Catholicism being repressed initially in the aftermath of the revolution, Cuba is the only communist country with which the Vatican never broke off diplomatic relations. As a symbolic gesture to honour the pope’s visit, Castro decreed Christmas a national holiday for the first time in nearly 3 decades after the Vatican increased the pressure on the Cuban government to do so. John Paul II’s spokesman who spoke with Fidel Castro personally said that when Fidel Castro finally agreed to celebrate Christmas as an official holiday in Cuba he added that it might be for 1998 only as the holiday would be difficult to uphold due to the fact that it fell into the middle of the sugar cane harvesting season. This was the official reason given for suspending the holiday originally as the Cuban government insisted that the Cuban Revolution never had an anti-religious spirit. However, years later, the holiday is still officially celebrated although it remains somewhat in the shadow of the New Year’s celebration which coincides with the commemoration of the Cuban Revolution.

Cuban salsa is in many ways connected to the history and culture of Cuba and as such has seen various influences from the way Christmas has been treated in Cuba. While Christians continued to celebrate Christmas in Cuba even when it was not an official holiday, its importance declined and the majority of Cuban traditions and songs that influenced Cuban salsa are therefore from the pre-revolutionary period. During the time where Christmas was no longer a holiday in Cuba, Santería became more important and its influence on salsa can be seen in many ways (more on this to follow in later posts). As Cuban salsa was still in its infancy before the Christmas ban, Christmas songs from this period are usually centered around other dance styles such as Son, Guaracha, Rumba and Cha Cha Cha such as the famous album by La Sonora Matancera ‎– Navidades Con La Sonora (Christmas with the Sonora).

In recent years, Christmas has gained in popularity and importance in Cuba, partly due to tourism but also due to the relaxation of political tensions between the U.S. and Cuba so new Christmas influences can be expected to leave their mark on future Rueda moves, timba songs and the general culture surrounding Cuban salsa.