All of December for Ecuadorians is a big month for holidays. First of all, we have Fiestas de Quito in the beginning, and I’ve explained a little about that with the bull fights and stuff. The next big thing that comes up after that is called Novena.
As you know, Jews get a nice long celebration in the winter spread out over eight nights, savoring the holiday season while Christians and a bunch of other people get one big day to look forward to with family and gifts and such. Here in Ecuador they kind of get the best of both those worlds with the unintentional mix of the two styles of celebrating. It’s called Novena and it’s the celebration of the nine days before Christmas, each day representing a month that Mary was pregnant.
What happens on a night of Novena is that family and friends gather together at someone’s house (ideally a different house each night). After we’re settled down, we start off by singing a few Spanish Christmas songs. Some of them are familiar tunes that have been translated, like Silent Night, Little Drummer Boy, and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Others are completely new tunes to me. Luckily they had several sheets with words on them to help poor gringos like me or forgetful family members. After a song or two, the hosts for the night read out loud traditional passages. There’s an opening passage and a closing passage that the same every night and a middle passage that is different that usually talks about Mary and Jesus and angels. After that some standard prayers are said, like the Lord’s Prayer, and then we sing a few more songs. Then comes my host brother’s favorite part of the night: the Novena food, or as it’s called here: “bocadillo navideño”. The host family prepares some little snacky/appetizer food such as emanadas, cake, fruit and ice cream, or something along those lines, usually with a yummy drink as well. People sit around and chat for a little while and then head home. The whole celebration of Novena takes about an hour, so by the time you get home, you still have time to do things like homework… or hanging out with friends.
image provided courtesy of flickr.com user lamusa
