HAVANA (AP) -- The millennium never arrived in communist Cuba.

                  The government of Fidel Castro officially shunned millennium events Friday
                  night and Saturday, arguing that the new century and the new millennium
                  won't start until one minute after midnight of December 31, 2001.

                  Instead, what began here at the start of 2000 was the "Year of the 40th
                  Anniversary of the Decision of Fatherland or Death."

                  In a country where every year gets a political and historical name, this year
                  remembers Castro's 1960 coining of the slogan used regularly during
                  speeches: "Fatherland or death! We will overcome!"

                  The government's announcement last week that millennium events being held
                  around the world were one year premature apparently dampened
                  enthusiasm for big New Year's parties -- which are never that big here,
                  anyhow.

                  No official events were scheduled, even though New Year's Day marked
                  the 41st anniversary of the revolution that brought Castro to power.

                  Traditional holiday celebrations were low-key, mostly intimate family dinners
                  of roasted pork, black beans, yucca and green salad -- along with plenty of
                  rum.

                  Tourists celebrated the new year with special holiday meals and shows in the
                  plaza outside old Havana's towering cathedral, at the Tropicana nightclub
                  and at hotel restaurants and discos.

                  Swigging beer and swinging their hips to drum beats, practitioners of Cuba's
                  Santeria religion celebrated the arrival of 2000 with African rites and
                  rhythms that slaves brought to the Caribbean island centuries ago.

                  At Hamel Lane, a closed-off street converted into a Santeria cultural Center,
                  hundreds danced to rumba bands whose musicians pounded out rhythms on
                  squarish wooden drums and sang centuries-old odes to Cuban orishas, or
                  saints.

                  Inside a bamboo hut populated by representations of Yemaya, Ochun and
                  other orishas, a woman dressed all in white lighted the first of 2,000 candles
                  to burn throughout the night in honor of the new millennium.

                  Havana's streets were quiet, with the exception of honking horns at midnight.
                  Just a few nuzzling couples were found when the clock struck 12 on
                  Havana's famous Malecon seawall, often a gathering site for spontaneous
                  celebrations.

                  Mostly, the three-day government holiday that began Friday was a respite
                  for Cubans increasingly wearied by daily demonstrations aimed at getting the
                  United States to return Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy rescued in
                  November off the coast of Florida. The boy's mother died during their
                  attempt to reach the United States.

                  The U.S. government turned Elian over to his great-uncle in Miami, who
                  says he can provide him a better life off the communist island. Elian's father,
                  Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has demanded that the boy be returned to him in
                  Cuba and Castro's government has made the fight its own.

                  "In these heroic days, the revolution has once again shown its solidarity and
                  extraordinary capacity for mobilization," the communist government said in a
                  message transmitted on radio and television in the wee hours of Saturday.

                  The fight to return Elian to his father in Cuba has become "a symbol, a
                  dignified banner," and his return to the island is "our goal," said the message
                  read on government-operated stations.

                    Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.