The holiday traditions are very different here than in the United States. First of all, almost everyone here celebrates Christmas. If you’re walking down the street and want to greet someone, you don’t say “Happy Holidays”, you say, “Merry Christmas.” One of the reasons for this is that Ecuador is 95% Roman Catholic, according to the CIA World Factbook. In the States, many people do not celebrate Christmas, but here, almost all celebrate Christmas.
Christmas here was very fun. We had a dinner at midnight (nochebuena) at a friend’s house and then walked around the neighborhood hanging out with people until 2:30 in the morning. The funny thing is, we went to bed early! We gringos couldn’t handle being out that late!
The food here is great. For Christmas dinner, we had chicken, rice and salad. It is amazing that the people here are so poor, yet so generous. Whenever we visit someone’s house, they always cook up some great food for us, even though they really don’t have much. Many of the houses are one room, with a bed on the floor and a stove in the corner. Even though people here barely have enough for themselves, they willingly give to their guests.
Q: About how many people are NOT Roman Catholic?
Hint: You can use the CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ec.html to find the total population of Ecuador.
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