Contrasts between the U.S. and Ecuador Holidays

One of the reasons for deciding to spend some time traveling as a family was for all of us to learn more about different cultures. We believe it is important for our children to develop an understanding and respect for cultures outside of their own, and believe that there is much to learn traveling to these locations and not just reading about them in the comfort of suburbia.

It is our belief that there are many similarities between all peoples of this world, and we are willing participants in the discovery process.

I am always fascinated by the contrasts between our culture and norms and those of other countries. We saw many similarities and many differences during the past holiday season between Ecuador and the U.S..

ecuador christmas tree

Christmas day for example is a very “mellow affair” in Ecuador. It is business as usual for the shops and business, and as a friend of ours told us “it is just another day”. Ecuadorians spend a good portion of the month celebrating the birth of Jesus, in Cotacachi there were 2 weeks of processions each night culminating in a Catholic Mass.

We were fortunate to experience these celebrations twice with some friends. The first time was at one of the local grade schools, and the second time we walked along with a few hundred others (and the Virgin Mary on a Burro) to the personal residence of a prominent citizen of the town. There was music and prayer, and thanks for the blessings of life.

Christmas is not a big, advertised, commercial affair in Ecuador. The shops and businesses do not advertise anything, you do not see kids running all over town with their new toys, and the focus is quite obviously the celebration of the birth of Christ.

Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Barney?

New Years Eve was very different as well. It is basically an all day celebration, we saw a few of the men drinking in the park when we went out around 9 a.m., and we also saw quite a few folks sleeping it off the next morning. One of them found a place to nap outside our apartment in the empty lot next door.

Nino's y Muneca

It is a little like Halloween because there were lots of people dressed up in costume. The kids dressed up, strung ropes across the streets, and stopped cars to ask for money. I could not find out what or why this tradition exists from anyone I asked.

Cotacachi Muneca

Additionally, we saw dummies all over town. Dummies meaning homemade dolls wearing clothes and stuffed with newspaper. We found out they are called Muneca’s, which means doll, but are used to signify the passing of one year to the next. At midnight each of these is thrown in the street and burned. It felt a little like you might expect of Voodoo, we learned that many of the Muneca’s were President Correa. I felt a little sorry for this guy as at the stroke of midnight his likeness was being burned all over Ecuador. As I thought about it a bit more however, I thought he had it pretty good compared to what George Bush would experience if we had this tradition in the U.S., I am sure George feels enough pain with the number of people sticking pins in their GWB dolls.

Our plans to spend the holidays in Ecuador worked out better than we had even hoped. We had hoped that we would be able to meet a few expats and maybe spend a little time with them. Instead, we met more than a dozen expat families, met local families from both the indigenous and middle class groups, and had all kinds of fun.

For thanksgiving we had dinner with a couple of dozen other folks at a nice location that was formerly a meditation center. We celebrated Christmas by making candy bags for school kids and participating in their school celebration. We made baked treats and took them around town to all of our new friends. We had a quite x-mas as a family, enjoying our little tree with its handmade ornaments. We made Lasagna for dinner x-mas eve, and a roast on x-mas day. And we spent new years chanting and meditating with new friends, enjoying a lite meal, and dragging our Muneca to the street and torching the sucker.

cotacachi church tower

The 15 minute walk home Gina, Grant, and I took turns carrying the smallest member of our family that had fallen asleep during meditation 