Christmas Day was different here than back at home in Berkeley.  We started with a parade we knew about (from our earlier trip to the Catholic Archdiocese).  While taking a nap (ah… the life of Riley!), we heard a band and ran outside to find another parade going by our front door.  Later, we attended a party about 5 feet from our front door, of residents of our apartment building, organized by one of the gringos here. 

In the middle of that party, the weather turned from warm & sunny to dark and cloudy. A few minutes later it started raining… and then hailing (almost unheard of here, but it didn’t last long)… then the rain turned into a deluge… and then into a monsoon!  While we were all watching the rain fall over the awning in amazement, lightning struck a tree about 20 feet away, knocking off a large branch.  Wow! What a way to end Christmas Day! 🙂

The first (scheduled) parade was a standard Pase de Nino parade at Igliesia San Francisco.  It was scheduled for 10:00, so we arrived a bit early… and found no indications of any celebration about to happen?  We walked around the plaza for awhile and pretty much gave up.  We then walked into the church and saw a schedule on the vestibule board saying that there would be a parade at 10:00.  It was 10:10 at the time, and we were just wondering if we misread the Spanish when we saw the priest and some parishioners coming out.  The parade had started!

They walked out of the church, circled a few blocks and returned to the same church.  Apparently these are not passing the statue from parish to parish, but rather just walking it around the block and returning.  We haven’t quite figured out the details of how this all works yet.  That understanding will probably have to wait until our Spanish improves a fair amount…

As I mentioned earlier, we then had lunch, went back to our apartment, and laid down for a short nap (yesterday was exhausting!).  Around 2:00, we heard the band and I ran out with my camera (of course…) to see what was up.

This was a fairly small Pase de Nino parade.  We were later told that this was from a neighboring village that had been in yesterday’s parade, and they decided on one last fling before returning home.  Same small car-floats,donkeys and costumes as before.

As the the parade wore on, most of the kids became bored or plain unhappy

Today was Pase del Nino Viajero, or Parade of the Traveling Child. It is the largest celebration and parade of the year, taking place on Christmas Eve day each year. All the towns of Ecuador have such a parade, but Cuenca has the largest. It was estimated that this year there were 800 floats and 60,000 participants.  That is quite an undertaking in a city of 400,000 people — about the size of Oakland, high in the Andes in a country with half the population of California.

Evelyn and I started out at 9:00 this morning, an hour before the parade started, by taking photographs of the revelers setting up and preparing. We then posted ourselves on various street corners letting the parade go by, then walking along with the parade for a few blocks until stopping again. Parades here are not cordoned off, as in the States, and it was easy to walk into the middle of any group and photograph, or just plain join the parade for awhile. The number of people in the parade easily outnumbered those standing on the side watching it go by.

Trying to make sense of the more than 1500 photos between us, I decided to let this become out longest post to date, showing our favorite images in various categories.

This statue is the star of the parade, and had an honor guard.  It was taken to the Vatican and consecrated by the Pope in 1961.

Angel costumes were the most prevalent

Roman soldiers were the second most common theme

Kings and shepherds were also a common theme

There were also several Santas

Each school group was preceded by a banner

There were bands galore

Lots of dancers too

Lots of kids on horses

Military were on horseback too

Where there are horses, there is …

Floats and horses were often adorned with massive amounts of food

All the news crews were on one block, with people being interviewed on-camera

There were plenty of police around, though I never saw any signs of trouble

There were lots of Christ statues

Many young kids rode on their father’s shoulders

While babies slept or played, unaware that they were the center of attention

Almost everybody was happy to be photographed

Kids were getting pretty tired by the end of the parade

Kids would often perk up at the sight of a camera, then go back to a bored stupor…

The spectators were often as interesting as the parade participants

Those with balconies along the route had prime viewing

We spent a couple hours on a 4th floor balcony, which gave an overview of the parade stretching to the horizon

This is the statue that is moved from church to church every four days

Prior to arriving in Cuenca, we had read in various sources that there were 50, 52 and 55 Catholic churches here.  Everyone seemed to have a different number.  The actual number turns out to be 67, as evidenced by the official schedule of processions of a status of Jesus moving to each parish in turn.  Today we caught the procession of the statue being brought to Iglesia de la Virgen del Bronce (Church of the Bronze Virgin).

The parade consisted of a sound truck, one float, and hundreds of kids mostly in angel or shepherd costumes.

As the parade approached us from a distance, we could hear the blaring sound truck that led the parade. The parish priest walked alongside, as it pounded out Jingle Bells — in English!?

The single float was a car draped in cloth with costumed kids riding along. At the end of the parade, parishioners waited,

The parade ended at the Iglesia de la Virgen del Bronce. The new church on the right is used for masses, while the original old church on the left is used for other purposes.

The old church was being used today for about a dozen Nativity scenes created by the kids

The Mayan calendar has expired, but we are still here. If only those that thought this would end the world would just go jump off a cliff, our national IQ could would experience a nice jump…

We spent the Winter Solstice visiting Saraguro to photograph their solstice celebrations.  We paid for a guide to take us there, but he turned out to be nearly worthless.  For starters, he said we needed two hours to get there, but it was really three.  We arrived in town just as a children’s parade was underway.  We had about five minutes to gather our stuff and grab a couple of shots before we were herded off to the official celebration in a neighboring town (Llincho?  Not really positive of the name of the village).

The Saraguro children’s parade had dozens of kids dressed as Santa

We then rushed off to the ceremony site… only to then be told we were not allowed to take any photographs at all…!?  Huh? We had hired this guide specifically for a photo tour, and he was now telling us we could not take any photos???

After some rather vigorous pressure on the guide, he finally arranged with the local elder that we could photograph the setting up of the next ceremony in a couple hours, but could not photograph the ceremony itself. Though this was still not the outcome intended, at least we weren’t forced to return home empty-handed.

Villiage members arrived in a loose procession, and then entered a Holy circle.

The Holy circle was on a plateau overlooking the valley. Village members not part of the ceremony sat on the surrounding hills to watch.

During the ceremony, kids played nearby, while music was provided by a drum and accordian.

Once the ceremony started, we were kicked out, so headed back to town. Saraguro is a typical Ecuadorian small town, with very little going on.  Due to the Winter Solstice, there was a small parade — as in one float and the entire parade taking just over one minute!

The kids on the float seemed very unhappy to be there, with frowns all around