The daytime when the festivities begin. In this video my sister and neighbors are participating in a new years tradition in Ecuador. For kids they dress as old people and dance in the street waiting for cars to try and pass, and when they do they dance to the car to ask for money or candies in order for the car to pass. For men, they dress as the widows of the year and ask for money or beer as they dance around.
Me and my younger sister were more into staying dry and making an año viejo muñeca. These dolls are made to represent someone or something of the past year, which is then burned to cleanse the past year and make the following year better. Im hoping someone made a donald trump. The dolls are made of old clothes, shoes, paper and other things that are stuffed inside to be burned when the clock strikes 12 with your family.
Me with my uncle before we burned him.
You can’t tell from this picture but all the way up and down the street each family partakes with their own fire and the streets are dotted with piles of ash the next day.
Of course I had to partake in some fire jumping activities.
Now that is had past 12 and become the new year it was the for some dancing, we danced under a makeshift tent which was cone shipped and very small. Needless to say at 6am when we returned home we all looked like
wet dogs.
The next day, or year should I say, when we woke up our mountain Imbabura had snow on her dormant volcanic crater, and the air felt so still and magical It was a beautiful new year.
Happy 2018 everyone. 🙂
