Every Day Is Special: May 3 - La Cruz de Mayo in Venezuela

May 3 - La Cruz de Mayo in Venezuela

Posted on May 3, 2019

Large neighborhood crosses put up and decorated.

Crosses covered with flowers.

A cross-decorating contest!

The May Cross holiday is a Catholic festival celebrated in many parts of Spain and "Latin America" or "Hispanic America."

In some coastal towns in Venezuela, not only are crosses erected and decorated, but there are huge festivals and dancing to the sound of drums on the beach all night.

Venezuela is located on the northern part of South America, with its coasts on the Caribbean Sea.

This nation is unfortunately known for a long list of terrible situations for its people - poverty, disease, shortages, unemployment, crime, and hyperinflation. (Hyperinflation is when prices raise really really quickly, devaluing the money used in that nation.)

In 2018 Venezuela's inflation rate was more than a million percent! That means that something that used to cost a dollar, such as a small loaf of bread, now costs more than a million dollars!)

Cost of a single banana, above.
Cost of a chicken, below.

Yikes!

And THAT means that the money is pretty much worthless. Again.

You see, Venezuela's money used to be based on the bolivar. But there was so much inflation that, in early 2008, bolivares were replaced by bolivares fuertes, at a rate of 1 bolivar fuerte to 1,000 bolivares.

In August of 2018 (just last year), bolivares fuertes were replaced by bolivares soberanos, at a rate of 1 bolivar soberano to 100,000 bolivares fuertes.

Can you imagine shopping and finding almost
nothing on the shelves to buy? Gruesome shortages!

Hyperinflation sounds so ridiculous one might think it's funny, but the cost of the destabilized money is people living in misery, people hungry, sometimes people starving. There are many Venezuelans who have left their homeland and are trying to find a new life and more opportunity elsewhere.