For the first time in nearly 13 years, Venezuelans began October this Thursday without a government decree forcing the Christmas season to start early — a recurring ritual under deposed socialist leader Nicolás Maduro that had become almost as predictable as the holiday itself.
Maduro, who took power in early 2013 after the death of Hugo Chávez, repeatedly moved up the start of Venezuela’s Christmas celebrations to dates of his choosing, often in September or October, according to Breitbart News. State-owned institutions and public spaces were ordered to erect decorations months ahead of Advent, the four-week period before Christmas that most of the Christian world observes.
That pattern ended after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested by American forces in Caracas on January 3 during a law enforcement operation. The pair remains held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, awaiting trial on multiple drug trafficking charges scheduled to begin next year.
A calendar as a political instrument
Maduro began adjusting the Christmas calendar as early as 2013, the first year of his rule, and continued the practice almost annually through the mid-2010s and early 2020s. He moved the season forward again in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, forcing it to begin in either October or November depending on his preferences.
In 2024, he pushed the season to October — just three months after a disputed presidential election and a crackdown on dissent that left thousands detained. At the time, Maduro framed the early Christmas as an expression of “gratitude” for what he claimed was a victory in the July 28 vote.
Last year, in September 2025, Maduro declared that the 2025 Christmas season would begin on October 1, roughly two months before Advent and about three months before his arrest. To mark the occasion, his government staged a fireworks display from the Helicoide, a Caracas structure that the regime had converted into its largest and most notorious torture center. Months later, in mid-December, Maduro asserted that the year 2026 had “already started” in Venezuela — a claim made in what turned out to be the final weeks of his rule.
Venezuela is a majority Catholic country, and Maduro’s habit of resetting the holiday clock drew repeated criticism from the Venezuelan Catholic Church, an institution that the ruling socialists attacked and insulted for years. In 2018, Maduro and other regime figures described Venezuelan priests as “devils in cassocks.” In 2014, while the regime was still mourning Chávez, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela rewrote the Lord’s Prayer to venerate the late president.
Christmas dinner, and a country’s shortages
This week, Delcy RodrĂguez, who now leads the government as “acting President,” offered a different kind of holiday update. Speaking at an official event, she said that “for the first time in many years” all of the pernil — roast pork shoulder, a centerpiece of the traditional Venezuelan Christmas meal — consumed during the holiday period will be produced domestically.
The claim carries weight in a country where pernil, along with hallacas, pan de jamĂłn and chicken salad, forms the core of the Christmas table. During the collapse of Venezuela’s socialist economy under Maduro, pernil became scarce and difficult to obtain. In 2017, Maduro accused foreign nations of “sabotaging” the country’s pernil supply without presenting evidence.
So far, RodrĂguez’s government has given no indication that it intends to change how the Christmas calendar is observed in 2026.
Maduro’s rise followed the death of Chávez, who named him as his successor during his final public appearance on December 8, 2012 — a date the regime has treated with near-religious reverence. Maduro governed for nearly 13 years, a period marked by economic collapse, emigration on a massive scale and a steadily combative relationship with the Catholic Church that predated him by decades.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/2026/10/01/maduro-gone-venezuela-begins-first-october-years-without-christmas/