As I stepped out of the Land Cruiser I saw Coen photographing a heap of something on fire. We were in the parking lot of Saraguro’s hospital and, as it was the end of the day, I feared they were burning waste material from the hospital.
They weren’t. As I moved closer I saw it was the man-sized effigy that we had seen propped up against the wall of the hospital earlier that afternoon. People stood around it, wishing each other a happy new year.
It was December 28. What was going on?
We were soon told that the burning of paper effigies is a New-Year’s Eve ritual in Ecuador (later we heard it also exists in Peru). As the hospital was going to be closed until January 2 (with the exception of the emergency room, that is) the employees were now having their New Year’s Eve toast.
Did we want to join them?
Of course!
And so we got to drink an intriguing mixture of milk with un trago (a liquor, or a shot).
Check it out: the Landcruising Adventure Duvet-Cover Collection
New Year’s Eve in Ecuador
From Saraguro we drove to Cuenca, where we learned more about the traditions and rituals of New Year’s Eve in Ecuador. Downtown many vendors were selling masks, which at a first glance reminded us of the masks we had seen during the Paucartambo Festival in Peru.
The Burning of Effigies
The masks are made of paper mâché, depicting human faces or animal heads such as monkeys, or cows. People may wear these masks during New Year’s Eve, but during the day we mostly saw the masks put on paper effigies that sat or stood before houses, shops or other buildings.
When a shop closed for the day, the employees set the effigy on fire to finish the old year together. During the day an increasing number of cars drove around with effigies on the front of the car, or on its roof.
The burning of the effigies signifies the burning of the bad that happened during the past year, so everybody can start with a clean slate. When talking to people about the ritual, it was beautiful to watch with how much pride they talked about this old tradition.
Travel Guides for Ecuador
(click on the images to look inside)
Products from Amazon
Cleansing Ritual
On the market people had their bodies cleansed of bad energy, evil spirits or anything else that is negative. Apparently this ritual exists in Peru and Bolivia as well, but we have never seen it. Here it is very popular on New Year’s Eve, but you can do this any time of the year.
“You can do it yourself, but it’s better to find somebody to do it for you, preferably with a very strong character,” a man explained to me.
Below a staircase in the market were five or six women incredibly busy performing cleansing rituals, among which on many babies and toddlers. We decided to give it a try ourselves.
I was asked to sit down and the lady took a bouquet of herbs out of a bag, crushed them and pushed them in my face. I don’t have a sense of smell, but now an incredibly strong scent was pushed up my nose and/or into my throat. I’m not sure what it was, but it stayed with me for a long time. It did put me off balance.
Read More: Off-Roading and Rough Camping at the Páramo of Ecuador
The lady took the herbs and hit me all over the place with it while mumbling prayers: on my head, my stomach, back, arms, legs, the works. On and on it went. There was a lot to get rid of, I suppose.
The next step was the egg. She took an egg and caressed it all over my body for minutes on end, continuing her prayers. The local man, whose daughter I had watched being cleansed before me, had explained to me that all the bad and negative would be drawn into that egg.
Subsequently, she broke the egg into a cup and analyzed it. From the little girl she had drawn a ‘bad eye’, in my case it was ‘negative energy’ and in Coen’s case it was ‘nerves’.
Women Solo Overlanding
(click on the images to look inside)
Products from Amazon
In some cases the eggs didn’t drain all of the bad energy or spirit. So, after the egg reading, the lady resumed with the herbs and once more did another egg touching. But in both our cases enough bad had been extracted and so our last step was to be sprayed with a liquid.
This the women did by taking a sip and spraying it on different parts of the body, after which we were blessed with black dots/crosses of what I think was a kind of ash on our foreheads, stomach and back.
With clean souls we were ready for an incredibly beautiful, healthy, inspiring, new year!
Are you?
Read More: Three-Kings Celebration in Ecuador
Check it out: the Landcruising Adventure Pullover-Hoodie Collection
Stay up to Date
Would you like to stay in the loop on all things Landcruising Adventure?
Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest news.
No spam – just updates that are infrequent enough not to annoy you, and it’s easy to unsubscribe!
Inspired? Pin it to your Pinterest Travel Boards
(Click on the image to pin it)
The men dress as ladies to represent “widows” – they are widows of the “old year”!
Wow, what an incredible journey. I felt as if I was right there getting a cleansing. Thanks