Cleaning The Soul
Doing the same old thing this New Year? Patricia, Carol and Linda ( best of friends)skips the ropey renditions of Auld Lang Syne and celebrates New Years the customary Ecuadorian way. “Mr. Pig” went out with a big bang. He was filled with many slips of paper notes ( We girls can think of much to write about), pine needles and lots of gun power. Wow, what a New Years. Sure hope the burning of the bad will make the New Year fantastic.
In Ecuador the whole family participates in their New Year's celebrations. On December 31st each member of the family donates a piece of clothing such as a shirt, pants, shoes, or hat. The family then proceeds to make a straw man by sewing the clothes together and stuffing them with straw. This straw man represents the old year (Ano Viejo). Each person then writes on a slip of paper all the bad that has happened that they want to forget. The papers are places on the straw man. At the stroke of midnight
the straw man is burned. It signifies the cleansing of the soul in the New Year. All of the faults that were listed are supposed to disappear. The idea is that you project all the bad stuff from the old year into the Años Viejos and then you burn it in order to get the new year off to a good start.
Some friends wrote this story about the bus trip to Banos New Years Eve:
It's a scene that is difficult to describe and, when happened upon unexpectedly, rates as one of the weirdest travel experiences to be had. Picture this: I am sitting sweatily on a bus bound for Banos, in the foothills of Tungurahua, a big, lumbering, active volcano. We are traveling from Riobamba on the Avenue of Volcanoes route, a journey that usually takes a couple of hours, and aim to be at our destination in time for nuevos anos. After just a mile or so, however, the bus screeches to a halt and I peer out of the grubby window to witness what looks to be a most unusual holdup. Standing in the middle of the road, brandishing sticks, are two masked men wearing micro-minis, impossibly high heels, water-filled balloon-breasts and big, bad wigs. They have erected a barricade fashioned from a bamboo across the road, preventing traffic from continuing any further.
The other passengers put paid to my bogus bandito theory when they start laughing and clapping and waving dollar bills at the transvestites. When they are satisfied with their booty, the pair raise the boom and we continue on our way. Less than a minute later, this scene is played out again. And again. And again. It's very, very weird: like being trapped in a sideshow alley, replete with bearded ladies and gurning Beelzebubs.
The closer the bus gets to a city, the more frequent the barricades, until there's one looming every 20m or so. Drag queens and masked freaks scurry through the traffic like ants, strutting their stuff and demanding dollars. It'd be excruciating if it weren't for the passing parade of weirdos. We can't get enough of it. It is, in the truest sense of the word, surreal - like being in a pop-up book. And the locals seem to enjoy it just as much as we do, gathering in family groups around the roadblocks to heckle and cheer.
There are tubby women, men squatting and smiling and young kids who look like they are powered on red cordial. They must look forward to this day more than Christmas. Despite the constant traffic noises, the toot-toots at the transvestites and the deep-throated diesel belching from the big trucks, there is laughter bouncing all around.
We don't care that our journey will take longer than planned. Trips like this don't come along every day. By mid-afternoon, with our pockets ransacked, I've settled into my seat and am chatting in Spanglish to 12-year-old Marcos, who tells me what he knows of this custom. According to my young informant, the barricade represents the division between one year from the next - which makes sense as, when we are waved through these makeshift gates, the drag queens all jump ceremoniously over an imaginary line on the tarmac, thus leaving the past behind. It's considered good luck to give to the gangs, which means it's a profitable situation for all.
The atmosphere is totally infectious and trying to interpret the strange and wonderful rituals is one of the best things about the fiesta. Playing 'I spy' has never been so much fun..
What a buzz. The streets are swarming with devils and skeletons, big hairy gorillas, big hairy transvestites and ghoulish souls smeared in thick, black grease. Carefully constructed scenes depicting the good and bad of the year are dotted around. Piled up on the pavement are mounds of effigies, orgies of tangled limbs and painted-on smiles. It seems if you haven't had time to make any anos viejos (year people), you can buy them ready-made.
Most of the papier-mache masks and effigies are of high-profile Ecuadorian politicians, although Osama bin Laden is everywhere. Impressive effigy is a towering depiction of Bin Laden, about 20 ft tall. Attached to the display is a note written in Spanish that, simply translated, says "We hope you get diarrhea for eternity". As well as being time to party, New Year's Eve gives citizens the chance to be vocal about issues which affect them - everything from the tug-of-war over territory with Peru, to the decimation of the Amazon and the rise of global terrorism.
The streets suddenly empty of Ecuadorians. Tradition dictates that by midnight everyone must return to their homes while the ceremonial burning of the effigies takes place outside. The symbolism is clear: they are burning the bad luck of the year in order to leave it behind.
By 6 am, there are still knots of masked people milling around the streets. There are also the smoldering remains of many bonfires, macabre scenes with the charred remains of bodies, and limbs jutting out, as if from a funeral pyre. And to top it all off... one lonely drag queen looking a bit like the Bride of Chucky, limping along, high heels in one hand, slurring "feliz ano nuevo". Indeed/
posted by latitude26 @ 10:34 AM
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