The Cuban government announced on Thursday that activities marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution were not over.

Celebrations will culminate with a rally in Havana on January 8, rescuing the occasion from what appeared destined to be an anticlimax. Thursday came and went with nothing more than a 16-word note from ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro congratulating “our heroic people”, and what was expected to be a short, televised evening ceremony before 3,000 people led by President Raúl Castro in eastern Santiago de Cuba, where the revolution began.