Ecuador and it's people never cease to amaze me. They love their parades! A year ago on January 16 I was in Otavalo and there was a Christmas parade complete with Santa, Mary, and Baby Jesus. I was told it was just to wrap up the Christmas season and that they do this all over the country. I shouldn't have been surprised two weeks ago (also about January 16) when I was on my way to the Cajas on Mongo that my trip was pleasantly interrupted by an indigenous parade with all the same characters that I saw in Otavalo a year before. Then today (January 30) I'm riding my bike down to Parque Abdon Calderon just to take in the warm day and sunshine and color comes flooding down Calle Presidente Cordova in the form of children on horses and yes, Mary and Joseph and the whole gang. After you've seen the really big Christmas Eve parade, El Pase del Nino Viajero in Cuenca, easily the largest Christmas parade in Ecuador, the parades that follow pale in enormity, but not in spirit.
I know I don't accidently fall into every parade that goes down the street. I'm sure I miss at least 90 percent of them which means that there's a whole lot of parades going on that I simply never see. I'm pretty sure that just like in the states, people work, go to school, play soccer and have four generations of family over for dinner every Sunday. What's different however is that all the rest of the time Ecuadorians are planning or getting in costume for the next parade. You've got to love a people that celebrate life like this.
I honestly think some of the dads are just going along with it to be good dads, but the kids never seem to tire of it, even a month after Christmas and two months after the Christmas parades started. They've all been decked out and parading the streets several times already. The flowing dresses and the glowing faces seem just as fresh as they were in late November.
Merry Christmas one more time!
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