The traditions of Christmas vary from one country to another. In many of them, for example in Argentina, it is traditional to put up the tree on December 8th, the day of the Immaculate Conception Virgin Mary.
From this date until the 24th, children in shopping centers ask Santa Claus for gifts and some young people sing Christmas carols on the streets.
In other places, for example in several cities in Europe, the Christmas marketsthe lighting of the streets with lights decorated for the occasion and of course endless preparations to make Christmas Eve a success.
In some Latin American countries, an ancient religious tradition has been preserved Catholic Churchthat invites you to family gatherings and prayers. It all starts exactly nine days before Christmas Eve.
In Colombia They attribute the origin of the novenas to this Brother Fernando de Jesús Larreaa Franciscan who was born in the city of Quito (now Ecuador) in 1700 and taught philosophy and religion in various places in the Viceroyalty of New Granada.
Novenas are prayers (or prayer groups) prayed for nine consecutive days to integrate us into a family or group of believers. Christmas novenas are prayers that They are prayed from December 16th to 24thin successive family gatherings, awaiting the arrival of the baby Jesus.
The Strenna Novena, created by Brother Fernando de Jesús Larrea, is a very Colombian custom where they pray in the days before Christmas, that’s why it is called Novena de Aguinaldos, which for the workers is the time before Christmas.
A tradition has remained: During these 9 days they meet to reflect and pray family membersWorkers in their companies and communities in parks or shopping centers.
On your website the Colombian Episcopal Conference reports that Brother Fernando received habit at the age of 16 in the monastery of the Recolección de San Diego in Quito and was ordained a priest in 1725. He later devoted himself to teaching philosophy and theology.
As a preacher, he took part in several missions, including the festivals in honor of the Virgin of Quinche in Quito (1732). He then preached in Valle del Cauca, Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Santander and Colima. He founded the San Joaquín Mission College (1757) in Cali.
Brother Fernando was not only a missionary, but also a spiritual leader Maria Clemencia de Jesús Cayzedo Velezwho she would have met in 1762. María Clemencia would be the founder of the first girls’ school in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, the Monasterio-Colegio de la Enseñanza, in Cali (1783).
At some point in this spiritual relationship Brother Fernando gave María Clemencia her Strenna novenawhich was not printed until 1788 in Lima, the Viceroyalty of Peru. It arrived in Bogotá in 1807.
The Colombian Episcopal Conference assures that “it has always been assumed that this practice (the ninth of Strenna) In Bogotá it was known as devotion, first of María Clemencia and then of the nuns and their students, until it reached Mother María Ignacia (Bertilda Samper Acosta).”
The Strenna Novena gained popularity thanks to the poet Bertilda, daughter of prominent Colombian intellectuals, who wore the costume of the Enseñanza since 1886 and took the name María Ignacia.
At school he learned about Fray Fernando’s book and made some changes to it. In 1910, the Archbishop of Bogotá, Bernardo Herrera Restrepo, authorized the publication of the most famous edition, Novena del Niño Dios.
Currently the Strenna Novena consists of 6 prayers repeated every day and there are popular versions with the same spirit about the birth of Jesus but with a more colloquial language which includes the Tuteo.
In the last century, tradition says that starting December 16th, the family had to gather around the manger every day to say these prayers and sing Christmas carols. The Strenna Novena is not only very popular in Colombia, but is also a tradition among Catholics in Colombia Venezuela and Ecuador.
Christmas Novenas: In which countries do Christmas Novenas with prayers, joys and Christmas carols?
The Colombian Episcopal Conference on Christmas Novenas. 
