Fireworks, street vendors, block parties, loud music, Pilsener beer and año viejos are all essential components for a fabulous Ecuadorian New Year Fiesta. The shenanigans begin early on the 31st when constructions of año viejos begin. An año viejo is generally a cardboard or paper-mache representations of an event, person or inside joke of the past year. At midnight, the año viejos are burned with help from gasoline. The beauty of burning is to let go of the past, acknowledge the blessings and celebrations yet welcome the new year in it´s pure, sans rubbish form. It´s usually an annual tradition, but I´d like to make it a daily practice- at least in thought.
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!” -Jack Kerouac
¨You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of, you will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.¨ - Albert Camus
¨...be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.¨ -Rainer Maria Rilke
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