El Paso de Ninos - Dec 24, 2014

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Okay, this one is a little out of order.



Cuenca has a magnificent parade marking Christmas Eve. The guidebooks say it is the finest Christmas parade in Ecuador. Children from all the neighborhoods surrounding Cuenca decorate horses, donkeys, llamas, and vehicles with an abundance of food, tinsel, and colors. The children dress as Christmas figures or in highly ornamental indigenous clothing. There are bands and stereo systems that provide music as they walk from the outskirts of the center to the main plaza.



This parade has both new and ancient roots. There used to be many small parades in the outlying areas of Cuenca. About 50 years ago, after a local woman brought a baby Jesus figure to Rome be blessed by the Pope, they brought them all together into one grand pageant following this "niño viajero" (translates as infant traveler). There appear to be two primary threads - one celebrating an abundant harvest and the other celebrating the birth of Jesus. They are both readily apparent throughout the procession.

More than 50,000 people will accompany the image of the Niño viajero (Religious catholic statue of the traveler child , who wears a green dress made with silver and gold) in the parade of El Paso de Ninos.

We had something else to do that afternoon, so we only spent a little over an hour watching the parade. In that time I took over 200 pictures, which I pared down to 167 and I have posted 51. What was amazing was that we met an Ecuadoriano couple standing next to us that were so pleasant and spoke English. They were living in Connecticut and he had not been back to Cuenca for 18 years. They invited us to join them at a get together in the hostel that we stayed at last year, but we had to leave.

It is the most important religious festival of the year which takes place in Cuenca. The traditional Niño Viajero Pass attracts over 150,000 people in the historic center. It begins at 09:00 and finishes at about 17:00.adily apparent throughout the procession.

The parade lived up to its reputation. In addition to the horses and llamas carrying their small charges, there were large floats, military vehicles, flatbed trucks, pick-up trucks, decked-out station wagons, fabric-covered cars, decorated baby carriages, and many manners of wheeled contraptions.

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