You can't speak of Christmas and New Years w/o mentioning the day-long Christmas parade, and the time-honored traditions of burning effigies, men dressing as women and stopping cars for money, and the lighting of fireworks.
The Christmas parade begins around 10am on Dec. 24 and lasts ALL DAY. Seriously, it's about an 8 hour parade. All of the local (and far away) communities and neighborhoods participate, decorating cars & trucks, horses, infants, and children in all manners of regalia. They are all pretty much their own version of the same theme: the manger scene.
The burning of the effigies has to do with getting rid of the previous year's bad karma; these figurines are highly flammable and burned on Dec. 31, usually after the sun goes down. You can purchase a super-hero to burn, a Disney character, or a plain body with no face, where you can affix your own mask or a pre-made mask. Popular masks are often of political figures.
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| I found this Christmas scene on a random side street; I had no idea it was there, and it is simply amazing! The photo does not do it justice, but the entire display is at least the size of a large garage. |
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| Blue lights are strung across the river for about a mile; this year fish were added to the scene. |
A really crazy tradition is where guys dress up as girls, and do their very best to stop traffic and solicit coin from the drivers. They will set up on the highway, in the city, anywhere traffic is strong. On a 60 mi. bike ride I saw at least a dozen groups of guys doing their thing. It's very bizarre, and makes no sense.
Fireworks. They say you can see the smoke from Ecuador's fireworks in space. Thank God the city is constructed of concrete, brick, and mortar, because otherwise it would burn down every New Year's Eve. Ecuadorians will use any excuse to set of rockets, and New Year's Eve is the grandaddy of them all. It's quite impressive, really.
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