It’s a New Year – Let’s hope the world can make the most of it and recover! A year ago was the first New Year’s Eve in more than a decade that we did not even create a blog post, because we were all locked down in our homes, to avoid further overloading hospitals with dying COVID patients. Then came the miracle of COVID vaccines, and hope arose that by the time we reached 2022, the pandemic would largely be behind us. Unfortunately, too many people chose to believe that a virus was somehow political. As a result, we are in many ways, in worse shape than a year ago with the surge in new infections around the world.

This was the smallest New Year’s Eve celebration we have seen in Cuenca since we started here in 2012. Because of the still rampant COVID virus, the first public celebration since 2019 did not have the neighborhoods competition with elaborate manigote (aka “effigy”) displays. The Ecuadorian Health Department outlawed public fireworks, manigote displays, burning of manigotes, parades, shutting down bars and basically any activity that resulted in large numbers of people congregating. After two years of such restrictions though, many people are eager to resume a semblance of their earlier lives, and gathered in smaller, mostly private groups to carry on traditions. The police were around, but opted to only keep the peace, and did not interfere.

A significant tradition in Ecuador is to make monigotes (effigies), which are generally paper mache or cloth bodies filled with sawdust (and sometimes with fire crackers), to be burned at midnight. A person traditionally writes a note stating things that he wants to eliminate from the past year, pins it to the dummy, and lights it on fire at midnight, thus burning away the bad parts or memories of the past year. In prior years, I have seen such notes that said smoking, or unemployment, or drinking, or similar sentiments that in North America would be called “New Year Resolutions.” Interestingly, of the monigotes that we saw burning this year, none had any notes that were visible.

The monigotes in Cuenca have always been rather crude. As can be seen above (upper-right and middle-right), the majority are not much more than stick cloth figures filled with sawdust. The buyer then chooses a paper mache mask of his favorite villain (bottom-right) to place on the neck before burning.

In 2015, we spent New Year’s Eve on the Ecuadorian coast, in Salinas. We discovered that the monigotes there are much more sophisticated. In wandering around town this year, we saw very few that were of the caliber that is more standard on the coast (upper-left Yoda, and middle-left COVID virus). Our friends Kris and Peter purchased their Covid monigote (middle-left) from the coast and burned it at midnight.

It has been tradition for people with some of the better designed monigotes to tie them to a car and drive around town. There was a parade of such cars briefly planned for this year, but the police nixed it just hours before it was to begin. As such, we only saw a few scattered through traffic around town this year, as seen above.

Sky lanterns (aka globos) are basically very light bags with a small platform for twigs and flammable materials in the bottom. People traditionally light these on New Year’s Eve. We have heard various explanations of the reasons, but mostly they are just fun and require cooperation of several people to get them airborne.They have been outlawed in Cuenca and most of the US for many years, because of the risk of their coming down, still with fire burning, on rooftops. Indeed, parts of two churches burned down in Cuenca in 2013 from these lanterns landing on the straw roofs.

Families still gather to light them though. Here are some photos of some children lighting one tonight. They tried for quite awhile, and when it finally took off, their faces lit up as much as the lantern itself.

Burning the monigotes at midnight is a long tradition in Ecuador. As stated in the opening of this blog post, it symbolizes burning away the bad things of the past year, so the New Year can start with a clean slate. There were elaborate displays of monigotes in many past years with political statements, as we saw here in 2018. Those displays were forbidden this year, because of COVID and the crowds that surround those displays. Families and businesses (lower-right) still gathered to burn their own problems away though throughout the city, and fireworks lit up the sky.

As with any fire, there will always be someone that gets impatient. Here was a neighbor of ours who could not get his monigote to ignite, so he poured alcohol on it… and nearly immolated himself! (right).

Along with the tradition of burning the effigies, is the tradition of jumping over the fire. It is believed that if you successfully jump over the fire three times, that you will have good luck in the coming year. Above you can see a sequence of photos showing one boy trying to improve his luck…

Note that every year, there are those who start the year off with a bit of bad luck, as they fall into the fire instead of clearing it. A couple years ago, we saw one expat slip and fall into the fire, and social media has videos of someone last night plowing headfirst into his fire. Also, the local hospitals report on occasional NYE firework enemas, as it is not unusual to find occasional fireworks explode just as a person jumps over it.

This was mostly a night for families to get out and celebrate the upcoming New Year. That includes some that dress up in drag and then go from car to car asking for $1 donation (upper-left). All in good fun, and most people dance along with them, and many cars gladly hand over $1 for the entertainment.

Here a few final random images from around town last night. Top-left is a vendor selling masks to go on the monigotes, while top-middle is a vendor selling personal fireworks. The two images on the far right were in the only elaborate block party we came across near Calle Larga, while the “Old Cathedral” had its tower lit in the lower-middle.

Police were on hand (middle), though they never interfered with anyone’s party. They were there just to keep the peace, and indeed, the entire evening was peaceful in a party atmosphere. And, of course, we should never forget the “Green Army” (lower-left) that keeps our streets spotless every day, even when others are taking a holiday.

You can only get part of the atmosphere by looking at the photos above. Here is a short 20 second clip showing friends and family dancing happily around a fire, just a few minutes after midnight.