January 01, 2017

Feliz Año Nuevo !

May god give you success and bless you in this new year.
We wish that all your dreams come true and  that
this new year be full of happiness and joy.

In Ecuador New Years is one of the biggest celebrations of the year. One big part of the festivities for New Years Eve in Ecuador are "los años viejos" (the old years). 

People make large dummies (effigies)often of the people they dislike or of notable people from the past year. Some come complete with signs detailing their sins. 

Old clothes are stuffed with sawdust or newspaper and a mask is added (most of the masks are paper maché and hand-made and sell for $2 to $5 everywhere in town).  


Then at mid-night everyone lights them on fire. The symbolic meaning of course is "forgetting the bad of the past year and hope that the coming year will be better".

This year Donald Trump was very popular - or maybe I should say 'un' popular.  

We walked to El Centro just after dark to see what was going on, but we were much too early for the "action", although the music was blaring and the parties had already begun. 

There were many little fires in the streets along our route.  I can only assume they were burning their 'effigies'. They are sometimes filled with fire crackers so they really light up!!



We were back at home early, so we watched a movie and had a glass of wine to bring in the new year.  We didn't miss the fireworks by being home. With a 180 degree view of the downtown from our 3rd floor apartment, we had the perfect vantage point.  The skies were lit up with wonderful lights bursting everywhere for over 15 minutes.  

The pictures I took turned out awful (as you can see) but you can see how great our view was.  It was a spectacular light show!