New Years Eve

Ecuador celebrates New Year's Eve with gusto. The whole city looks as though it is on fire as fireworks are set off and the "burning of the old man" takes place. They have a few different traditions here... one is the "burning of the old man." About 5 days before New Year's Eve, there are stands all over the place with stuffed dummies and masks that you can purchase for the dummies' head. It is very odd seeing all these fake people on every street corner. The idea is that you buy one of these and fill it full of firecrackers and gasoline and set it on fire at midnight (sounds very similar to something our youth group did back home on the sled hill). It symbolizes burning the old man and starting a new. There are hundreds of thousands of these burning men all throughout the city at midnight... in the streets, on the curbs, vacant lots etc. and no one seems to tend them when they're done... they're just left to burn out.


















Another thing that people do is set off fireworks. And these fireworks aren't just little bottle rockets or little roses that spin on the ground (although they have those too) but these are huge fireworks like the ones they set off the peninsula on fourth of July. Ok maybe they're not quite that big... but similar. And the craziest thing is, fireworks are supposedly illeagal here. Needless to say, we had a blast taking part in these New Year's Eve traditions and thought fondly of Daniel Spicer, Mike and John Herman, Brian Newman and Jason Francis, knowing of their fondness for fireworks and blowing things up.