There are always several altars in the churches, surmounted by figures of the saints to whom they are dedicated. Some of these statues are quite beautiful, others, in some of the poorer churches, are hideous. As in other Spanish countries the churches are bare of seats, and people who attend either send small chairs before the service, or stand. It is not unusual to see well dressed ladies carrying their chairs to church. Women are much more in evidence than men, and the Dominican woman is not different from her sisters in other countries, for a new hat or dress is apt to awaken in her an irresistible yearning to go to church. Young men are fond of attending, too, but it is to be feared that in many cases their object is to see the young ladies rather than to hear the sermon.
The custom of celebrating the saint's day instead of the birthday is followed, so that birthdays pass unperceived while the day dedicated in the calendar of the Catholic Church to the saint whose name a person bears, is the day which he celebrates and on which he receives the felicitations of his friends.
Christmas tide is not a time when presents are exchanged, and Christmas trees are not found, save rarely and where the foreign influence is strong. There is no lack of celebration, however. On Christmas Eve the churches are crowded and there are banquets and dances going on everywhere. In the cities the small boys amuse themselves by setting off fireworks. During the Christmas week dances are frequent, and in the country they continue sometimes for days to the lugubrious accompaniment of accordions and large drums. December the twenty-eighth, Holy Innocents' day, is All Fools' day, instead of April the first, it being argued that just as the innocents of Herod's day were made to suffer, so the innocents of this age should be persecuted. Many are the pranks perpetrated and the small boy is in his glory. On New Year's Eve many families receive their friends; there is generally some large ball, and the new year is ushered in with fireworks and other noises.
The great day of the year for the children is the sixth of January, the feast of Epiphany, or Three Kings' Day, as it is called in Santo Domingo. Just as the three wise men from the East brought presents to the infant Christ in ages past, so they now make the rounds and leave presents for deserving children, thus taking the place of our Santa Claus. The receptacles they choose for the good things they deliver are either the children's slippers or shoes, or boxes made ready by the little ones. For weeks before the anxiously awaited day, letters are written to the Kings, explaining what gifts would be acceptable, and are given to the parents who undertake to deliver them. The children are careful to facilitate the display of the Kings' generosity by placing their shoes or boxes in conspicuous places and filling the boxes with grass, so that the horses of the Kings can eat. Their thoughtfulness is rewarded, for on the following morning the visit of the Kings is attested by indubitable evidence, as there is an abundance of toys and sweets and the grass is often quite strewn about. Excited little ones are sure they heard the pawing of the horses on the balcony. The Kings usually show a magnanimous disregard of past offenses, but occasionally they leave a letter of advice or warning, and they have even been known to place a switch in the box of a particularly bad boy.