In some Spanish-speaking cultures, kids live in very rural regions and they need to help their parents with difficult tasks such as farming. Some of those regions are so rural that there are few television sets or computers. Other children live in large, developed cities and have all the modern conveniences you can imagine, including very nice schools.

Children go to school daily by 9:00 a.m. but usually return home for the afternoon meal, la comida. This is a large, hot meal, much like dinner in the U.S.A. In some regions and countries, students get a break around 10:30 called la merienda. They might eat a small sandwich and a piece of fruit that keeps them nourished until they go home for their meal in the afternoon. After the big daily meal, they have a siesta and rest for a while. Older kids and college students must then go back to school to finish their day.

Nowadays some countries are losing the custom of having la siesta. This has made problems, like a great deal of traffic many times a day! So it is now not unusual for children to simply eat their meals at school and have a slightly longer day there. Still, the school day is not as long in Spanish-speaking countries as it is in the U.S.A. They also have many more holidays during the year, many of them religious. But this means that kids get a shorter school break in the summer-only about six to eight weeks. What do you think of that?

There are three major school vacations during the year: Christmas, Easter and summer. Many families like to take a summer vacation: in Mexico this is commonly done in July, and in Spain, in August.

A very fun time of celebration in Spanish-speaking countries begins in February when people celebrate Carnaval as the beginning of Lent. Because the majority of Spanish people are Roman Catholic, Lent is an important time. Kids dress up in costumes and have parades and it can get very crazy since many adults dress up too! At the end of Lent the major celebration is Semana Santa, or Holy Week, and this is a more serious, week-long, religious celebration. The first Sunday of that week, Palm Sunday, is very special in most countries, including Perú, where, after a mass, they celebrate with music, dancing and regional food. Some other important holidays are the feast of the patron saint of a town, and the Virgin of Guadalupe celebration in Mexico. Most celebrations in Spanish-speaking countries do not involve large meals, but rather, families and friends spend time together strolling about on the streets.