Holiday festivities are not a stranger to many, and while waiting for Christmas morning to gather around a tree and open presents is fun, it's not the end for many Latinos.

In fact, it is in the middle of the holiday festivities for some Latinos, since they celebrate other traditions well before and after Christmas.

These holiday festivities aren't even small celebrations. They're undoubtedly big events where Latino families and friends celebrate before Christmas and sometimes even in the middle of January.

Here are four other traditions that Latinos look forward to:

Día de las Velitas

Día de las Velitas, or the Day of the Little Candles, gravitates around a religious holiday in the largely Catholic country.

The holiday takes place on December 7, the eve of the Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception.

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According to Medellin Guru, it is a widely observed holiday tradition in Colombia, and is considered to be the country's unofficial start of the holidays.

Candles of different colors are lit up inside and outside of buildings, along with paper lanterns and even more electric light displays, said the Smithsonian Magazine.

People make wishes on these candles. It is believed that the period at which a flame burns measures how likely a wish will come true.

Posadas

Posadas isn't just a one-day event. It's a tradition with nine whole days of processions popular in Mexico, Guatemala and parts of the southwest United States.

"Posada" means "lodging" or "inn", and the tradition is known as a celebration of the Christmas story.

According to Journey Mexico, Posadas takes place from December 16 to 24 and tells the story about Virgin Mary and St. Joseph's search for a place to stay before Jesus was born.

Traditionally, the procession will be refused lodging but hosts would often provide refreshments, said Britannica. At each stop, there will be a reading of scriptures and singing of carols.

Night of the Radishes

Also known as Noche de los Rabanos, the Night of the Radishes is celebrated in Oaxaca City in Mexico.

The tradition started as a way for vendors to make their vegetables more enticing by making sculptures. It became a tradition in Oaxaca ever since, said Atlas Obscura.

Every December 23, people would gather in the city's main square to celebrate the tradition.

Radishes would be shaped into different sculptures like saints, musicians or buildings. To ensure fair competition, only vegetables grown by the government are used in the festival.

Culture Trip noted that the festival was one of the kind, having not matches in oddity and creativity throughout Mexico.

Tamaladas

Tamaladas are also part of Latino tradition that many look forward to, but no one seems to know how it started to be a tradition at all, said Jess Pryles.

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It's theorized that since making tamales is a chore that requires lots of time and hands, an assembly line in the tamaladas would be both a great bonding experience and a way to get the tamales done.

"A tamalada is a multifamily, multigenerational event," says Sylvia Cásares, who owns Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen, told Texas Monthly.

Historically, tamale making really is a social event, with everyone having their own task to look after-from cooking filling and preparing wrappers.