About Nueve Noches
Nueve Noches helps families who pass the novena from house to house every December keep track of who's hosting, who's reading, and who's bringing the buñuelos — then run each night's prayers in a full-screen reading mode built for reading aloud. It works completely offline: there's no account, no sync, and nothing ever leaves your device.
Frequently asked questions
Q.How does "Repeat last year, shifted by one house" actually work?
It takes last year's finished roster and moves every assignment forward one household in your family's rotation order — the host, the readers (keeping child readers in the children's pool and adults in the adult pool), and who brings each dish. Anything you've already filled in for the current year, like a night already marked prayed, a note, or a pesebre photo, is left untouched.
Q.Does reading mode need an internet connection?
No. The full novena text and all ten villancicos are stored on your device from the moment you install the app. Reading mode, search, and bookmarks all work with your phone in airplane mode — handy in houses with weak signal on the 16th of December.
Q.Where is my roster and household data actually stored?
On your device only, using Apple's Core Data framework for your roster and households and UserDefaults for your settings. Nothing is uploaded to a server, there's no account to lose access to, and nothing syncs between devices. If you delete the app, that data goes with it, so we'd recommend using the built-in Share option before a phone upgrade.
Q.What do the reminder notifications actually notify me about?
Three kinds, all scheduled on your device and all optional: a nudge two hours before each of the nine nights with that night's host and who's bringing what, a reminder for Velitas on the evening of December 7th, and a mid-November nudge if any night in your roster still doesn't have a host assigned. You can turn any of this off in Settings, and nothing is sent through a push server — it's all local.
Q.Why does the app ask for my camera or photo library?
Only so you can attach a photo of the host's pesebre for a given night, or a family photo for a household — and only once you tap the photo button yourself. If you say no, or your device has no camera, the app falls back to the photo picker instead. Photos you add stay on your device; they're never uploaded anywhere.
Q.What are the links under "Sobre la novena"?
A handful of background reading pages about Colombian Christmas traditions — Velitas, Aguinaldos, the villancicos — opened in a small in-app browser with back, forward, and an "Open in Safari" button if you'd rather read them there. The app doesn't browse anywhere else, and visiting those pages doesn't share any of your roster data.
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