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 | Government workers distribute food to people in areas hit by coastal flooding in Havana, Cuba,Tuesday Oct. 25, 2005. Hurricane Wilma never made landfall in Cuba, but its ferocious waves transformed the island's capital city for more than a day, ripping off chunks of the famous Malecon seawall and flooding many of Havana's most prominent streets. click to open  |  | Christmas (1998): A girl is reflected in a mirror as she looks at items for sale in a store at the beginning of the holiday shopping season in Havana, in this Dec. 1, 1998, file photo. Christmas was banned as a national holiday in Cuba in 1970, but this year the government announced that it was reinstating Christianity's most important day. click to open |  | Yodania Sanchez, 22, decorates a Christmas tree at her home in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana, Cuba Monday, Dec. 21, 1998, while the family dog looks on. Cubans are recapturing the Christmas traditions of their parents and grandparents this year as they prepare to celebrate Dec. 25. The Cuban government granted a Christmas holiday last year as a one-time favor to Pope John Paul II and decided last month to make it permanent this year for the first time in nearly three decades. click to open |  | Pedestrians look through a Christmas store window Sunday, Dec. 20, 1998 in Old Havana, Cuba. For the most part, Christmas items such as these can be purchased only with U.S. dollars. As Cubans begin recapturing a tradition all but erased by official declaration in 1969, church leaders are reminding their parishoners not to forget the holiday's religious origins. click to open |
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