Since the fifteenth century, when the great European expansion around the world began, navigators and conquerors faced a new and unknown world. Every place they came to, every settlement they founded, had to be named for it to really exist. One of the easiest resources was to convert the festivity that the Church celebrated that day into a place name. And since the explorations did not stop even on December 25, the world was filled with places and populations called Christmas, Natividad, Natal or Christmas.
Fort of Christmas (Haiti)
December 25, 1492 was not the best for Christopher Columbus. Before dawn, the ship Santa Maria ran aground off the northern coast of present-day Haiti, rendering it completely useless. The crew was saved and with the salvaged materials they built the first Spanish settlement in the New World: the La Navidad fort. There were a few cabins and a tower where 39 men stayed. However, when Columbus returned to the site during his second voyage, in November 1493, he found no one alive.
No material trace remains of La Navidad, which stood on one of the arms of land that close the bay of Cap-Haitien, right next to Bord de Mer de Limonade, a village with a name of those that only exist in the Caribbean. About 20 kilometers away is the National Historical Park, which includes the remains of Sans Souci, the palace of the King of Haiti Henri Christophe; the citadel Laferriere (one of the largest fortresses in America) and Ramiers, the only Haitian sites on the Unesco world heritage list.
KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)
On Christmas Day 1497, Vasco de Gama was sailing on his voyage to India along what is now the northeastern coast of South Africa, and named the bay where he landed Rio de Natal. The city that arose in that place, Port Natal, is the present Durban. The Portuguese name remains that of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, which is the homeland of the Zulu. The coastline in this area has two different faces. To the south of the Tugela river we find the beach destination of local South African tourism. On the other hand, to the north appears the most isolated in the country. The jewel of this area is the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a set of beaches, marshes, coastal dunes, reefs, salty and sweet lagoons, swampy jungles and wetlands that stretch for 280 kilometers. The variety of fauna is incomparable.
Christmas Bar (Mexico)
On December 25, 1540, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza toured the coast of the current State of Jalisco and we can already imagine what we have now: the population of Barra de Navidad is located on the sandbar that separates the bay of Navidad from the Christmas lagoon. At that time, its excellent conditions as a port were valued and from here the explorers who arrived for the first time on the coasts of California left. Legazpi and Urdaneta set out from Barra in 1564 on one of the fundamental expeditions in history, the one that led to colonizing the Philippine islands and discovering the return route to America, which until then had not been achieved. This finding made it possible to establish the line of the Manila Galleon, which often arrived or departed from Barra de Navidad and not from Acapulco.
Christmas (Brazil)
On Christmas Day 1599, the city of Natal, current capital of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, was founded on the northeast coast of Brazil. People don’t come here to visit museums but for other reasons. At the beginning of December the Carnatal is celebrated, a carnival out of season. The main attraction of Natal are its beaches, which can now be enjoyed in the city itself, especially in the Ponta Negra neighborhood. But it is better to move a few kilometers. To the north, it is enough to cross the Potengi river and continue to Genipabu, where the dunes are 50 meters high and are the highest on the entire coast.
However, the best beaches are to the south of Natal. Those of Pirangi do Norte, Pirangi do Sul and Buzios are the image of paradise with a mixture of dunes, palm trees and ocean. And if you continue a few kilometers further to Tibau do Sul, there one can swim among dolphins at the foot of the cliffs.
Puerto Natales (Chile)
Until a few years ago, Puerto Natales was only a stage on the journey between Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine National Park. But now travelers stop to learn about the life of this town with a border atmosphere that emerged next to the Natalis estuary, named after some German pioneers at Christmas 1894. In the Historical Museum one mentally confronts the pumas and becomes Get on the canoes of the Yagans who used to navigate these icy waters. In the surroundings you eat a barbecue in a farm with the descendants of the pioneers or you ride with gauchos as guides who later tell you stories while they prepare a mate on a bonfire. Literary travelers follow the pages of Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia to the Milodon cave.
Christmas Island (Australia)
Although it is located only 360 kilometers south of Java, Christmas Island is an Australian territory whose nearest coast is 1,500 kilometers away. This remote corner, lost in the Indian Ocean, was sighted by Captain William Minors on Christmas Day 1643, but there were no attempts to settle it until the 19th century. Two thirds of its territory is protected as a national park and the attraction of a visit is to enjoy intact nature.
A boy watches red crabs during their annual migration on Christmas Island (Australia).Getty Images
In addition, this island is the scene of one of the most amazing spectacles in the animal world: the migration of tens of millions of red crabs from the interior forests to the coast to mate and lay eggs. It is a synchronized process of the animals with the phases of the moon and the tides. To avoid human interference, some roads are closed to traffic. In addition, they have built tunnels and the only bridge for crabs in the world.
