In the midst of the darkness of a power outage, Pinareños found their own way to celebrate the beginning of 2026.
A shared video A surreal scene shows on social media: a tractor decorated with Christmas lights pulling a wagon with a tree on it, an old year doll and a dozen people on boarddrove through the streets of Pinar del Río accompanied by horns and enthusiastic shouts.
But what kind of thing is this…the person recording the video can be heard saying, surprised by the scene.
It is unclear whether this was another government initiative or whether it was spontaneously improvised by residents of Cuba’s westernmost province.
The Muñecón, a traditional figure of “Año Viejo” in Cuba, symbolizes the end of the worries of the past year and is often burned to make room for new desires.
The year-end celebrations in Pinar del Río took place amidst extended power outages that affected much of the country in the final hours of 2025, when the national electricity system again experienced high demand without sufficient generation support.
