Fiesta de Año Viejo & Feliz Año Nuevo

In early December, around the same time nativity scenes start appearing, stores also stock rows upon rows of dolls and effigies. These range from tiny to life-size, made to represent famous and infamous people, political figures, folkloric characters and disliked people including foreign leaders.  

Masks
Courtesy:Ecuadoratyourservice.com

All this is in preparation for the Fiesta de Año Viejo, which has as much to do with the passing of the old year as the ushering in of the new one. I’m always looking forward to any holiday in Ecuador, as they have traditions and customs unlike anything in my life, both in Kenyan or in Canada. So as the year drew to a close, I couldn’t wait to experience it all.

Masks
Courtesy fotografiadelecuador.com

As I am learning along the way, Ecuadorians are as superstitious as they are religious, and they incorporate these believes in all their traditions, and the Fiesta de Año Viejo is no exception.

1). Año Viejo

While some people buy the ready-made dummies, most others actually create their effigies which they stuff with old clothes [ideally from each member of the family], saw dust, dry grass, newspapers and firecrackers. The assumption is that these effigies trap all the bad things from that year. These dummies are then beaten [people take turns] and then burnt before midnight to ensure those bad things are gone and will never happen again.  We sat close to our effigy to ensure it burned completely or else, as I was told, all the problems and bad things that were troubling you in the year would return to bother you in the New Year.

2). Jumping over the fire 12 times
The other tradition I took part in was the jumping over the fire.  This is how it works. Before midnight, you build a huge fire [not the effigy fire], and every person jumps over the fire for every month to bring good fortune/luck.  The problem with this one is depending on how many people there are the fire gets pretty big and very few if any can make the jump up to the 12^th month. I didn’t make the jump past the 4^th month.

3). Gifts to the fire
In this tradition, Ecuadorians throw coins to the fire for financial luck in the New Year or food stuffs like rice or flour to wish for abundance of food.

4). Coloured Panties
My friend Elizabeth first told me about this one in early December, and in preparation we set off to the city to buy some coloured panties but ended up with shoes instead. For New Year’s Eve, women wear coloured panties to bring good luck in the New Year. While red brings love, yellow is supposed to bring wealth – I will make sure to stock me some yellow underwear in future.

5). 12 grapes


My 12 grapes, and a piece of
chocolate I sneaked in.

I actually knew of this tradition from a Mexican friend in Toronto. Twelve grapes has its heritage in Spanish culture so it is widely practiced across Latin and South America. This is done at the dinner table so I found more people who said this was their preferred way to usher in the New Year, and I have to say it’s something I have decided to incorporate in my New Year celebrations from now on, substituting grapes with other locally available fruits. For every wish per month, Ecuadorians eat a grape [i.e. January find a job, February fall in love, March lose some weight, etc.]

6). Widow of the Old Year
This one is left to the children, although some adults though rarely do take part. My classmate Jorge explained this to me and said as a boy he played the widow. Neighbourhood children especially boys come together and select one to dress up as a grieving widow.  Then they set up barriers to stop cars and ask for money for the widow whom they refer to as the “oldie”. In the meantime, the widow plays up the part, weeping that their loved one has died and they have been left without money.

You have to give some money for the barrier to be released and the kids are happy with just a few cents. The barriers are expected at this time of the year and locals warn you to have lots of change while driving around. This tradition brings lots of fun for the children and people willingly play along, and the kids take home lots of change.

So tell me, which of these festivity most appeals to you?

Note. Año means year, Viejo-old, nuevo-new.