Honduras
Christmas Around the World
Reagan Library Christmas Tree Exhibit

Honduras

Christmas Traditions

BARBADOS BELGIUM BRAZIL CANADA CHINA COLUMBIA COSTA RICA FINLAND FRANCE GERMANY GRENADA HONDURAS ICELAND INDONESIA IRELAND ITALY JAMAICA JAPAN MEXICO RUSSIA SOUTH KOREA SPAIN SWITZERLAND UNITED KINGDOM THE VATICAN

Christmas traditions in La Ceiba aren't so different from those in the U.S. Christmas is a very important holiday in Honduras as a lot of the population are Catholics. The Christmas period starts with Advent. Christmas Eve is called Noche Buena (the good night) and is when the main Christmas celebrations and meal take place. Either before or after the meal, many people will go to a church service on Christmas Eve. At midnight there are lots of fireworks, sometimes lasting all night long!

Updated October 2024
Posted December 2023

HONDURAN CHRISTMAS

Honduras Flag

Honduras Christmas Tree
Honduras Christmas Tree

HOW TO SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS:
In SpanishFeliz Navidad
 

Honduras Christmas Ornaments

Angel Christmas Ornament

Christmas Ornament Angel

Christmas Ornament Bells

Bell Christmas Ornament

Mary Christmas Ornament

Honduras Christmas Ornaments

Honduras Christmas Ornaments

Honduras Christmas Ornaments


Ronald Reagan Honduras
December 4, 1982
President Reagan and President Roberto Suazo Cordova at San Pedro Sula airport arrival ceremony, in Honduras; Working visit with President Suazo and Guatemalan President Rios Montt.


Honduras

WIKIPEDIAThe Republic of Honduras
A country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea. Its capital and largest city is Tegucigalpa.

Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, before the Spanish colonization in the sixteenth century. The Spanish introduced Catholicism and the now predominant Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras became independent in 1821 and has since been a republic, although it has consistently endured much social strife and political instability, and remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. In 1960, the northern part of what was the Mosquito Coast was transferred from Nicaragua to Honduras by the International Court of Justice.

The nation's economy is primarily agricultural, making it especially vulnerable to natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The lower class is primarily agriculturally based while wealth is concentrated in the country's urban centers. Honduras has a Human Development Index of 0.625, classifying it as a nation with medium development. When adjusted for income inequality, its Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is 0.443.

Honduran society is predominantly Mestizo; however, there are also significant Indigenous Americans, black and white communities in Honduras. The nation had a relatively high political stability until its 2009 coup and again with the 2017 presidential election.

Honduras spans about 112,492 km2 (43,433 sq mi) and has a population exceeding 10 million. Its northern portions are part of the western Caribbean zone, as reflected in the area's demographics and culture. Honduras is known for its rich natural resources, including minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry, which serves the international market.

Honduras has 18 Departments

  • Honduras is divided into 18 departments. The capital city is Tegucigalpa in the Central District within the department of Francisco Morazan. The north coast of Honduras borders the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean lies south through the Gulf of Fonseca. Honduras consists mainly of mountains, with narrow plains along the coasts. A large undeveloped lowland jungle, La Mosquitia lies in the northeast, and the heavily populated lowland Sula valley in the northwest. In La Mosquitia lies the UNESCO world-heritage site Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, with the Coco River which divides Honduras from Nicaragua.
  • The climate varies from tropical in the lowlands to temperate in the mountains. The Pacific coast is generally drier than the Caribbean.
  • Honduras hosts more than 6,000 species of vascular plants, of which 630 (described so far) are orchids; around 250 reptiles and amphibians, more than 700 bird species, and 110 mammalian species, of which half are bats.
  • Honduras has rain forests, cloud forests (which can rise up to nearly 3,000 metres or 9,800 feet above sea level), mangroves, savannas and mountain ranges with pine and oak trees, and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. In the Bay Islands there are bottlenose dolphins, manta rays, parrot fish, schools of blue tang and whale shark.
  • Football is the most popular sport in Honduras. Baseball is the second most popular sport in Honduras. Hondurans have consistently entered track & field and swimming games at the Summer Olympics since 1968 and 1984, respectively. Honduras has not won a medal in the Olympics and has not made notable results in other world championships yet.
  • Honduras is governed within a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic. The President of Honduras is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the Honduran government. Legislative power is vested in the National Congress of Honduras. The judiciary is independent of both the executive branch and the legislature.
  • Honduras has a military with the Honduran Army, Honduran Navy and Honduran Air Force.
  • The economy of Honduras is based mostly on agriculture, which accounts for 14% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013. The country's leading export is coffee (US$340 million), which accounted for 22% of the total Honduran export revenues. Bananas, formerly the country's second-largest export until being virtually wiped out by 1998's Hurricane Mitch, recovered in 2000 to 57% of pre-Mitch levels. Cultivated shrimp is another important export sector.
  • Along with neighboring El Salvador and Guatemala, Honduras forms part of the Northern Triangle of Central America, which has been characterized as one of the most violent regions in the world. Crime in Honduras is rampant and criminals operate with a high degree of impunity. Honduras has one of the highest national murder rates in the world; cities such as San Pedro Sula and the Tegucigalpa likewise have registered homicide rates among the highest in the world. The violence is associated with drug trafficking as Honduras is often a transit point, and with a number of urban gangs, mainly the MS-13 and the 18th Street gang. Homicide violence reached a peak in 2012 with an average of 20 homicides a day.
  • The World Bank categorizes Honduras as a low middle-income nation. The nation's per capita income sits at around 600 US dollars making it one of the lowest in North America. Levels of income inequality in Honduras are higher than in any other Latin American country.
  • The ethnic breakdown of Honduran society was 90% Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European), 7% American Indian, 2% Black and 1% White (2017).
  • Spanish is the official, national language, spoken by virtually all Hondurans.
  • Most Hondurans are nominally Catholic: 51.4% of the population identified themselves as Catholic, 36.2% as evangelical Protestant.
  • About 83.6% of the population are literate and the net primary enrollment rate was 94% in 2004. In 2014, the primary school completion rate was 90.7%.
  • Honduran cuisine is a fusion of indigenous Lenca cuisine, Spanish cuisine, Caribbean cuisine and African cuisine. There are also dishes from the Garifuna people. Coconut and coconut milk are featured in both sweet and savory dishes. Regional specialties include fried fish, tamales, carne asada and baleadas.

Honduras Flag The flag of Honduras is composed of three equal horizontal stripes. The blue upper and lower stripes represent the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The central stripe is white. It contains five blue stars representing the five states of the Central American Union. The middle star represents Honduras, located in the center of the Central American Union.

EtymologyThe literal meaning of the term "Honduras" is "depths" in Spanish. The name could either refer to the bay of Trujillo as an anchorage, fondura in the Leonese dialect of Spain, or to Columbus's alleged quote that "Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas honduras" ("Thank God we have departed from those depths").

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