Monday, November 8, 2010

Halloween 2010


Ramon's nursery class...with star teacher Miss Tori :)


Ramon's guagua de pan.


No trick or treating here. But they do celebrate the day of the dead and visit relatives grave sites and party there. Kids decorate bread shaped like babies, called guaguas de pan. Here is an explanation from the internet.

"The Ecuadorian Day of the Ancestors isn’t quite like the Mexican Day of the Dead, nor is it like American Halloween. El día de los difuntos is a time to celebrate one’s dead ancestors. In the small country villages, families dress in their finest clothes and carry a meal to the cemetery, where they dine on top of the grave of their ancestors. One plate is always left for the dead ancestor. This traditional meal includes guaguas de pan and the colada morada.

Guaguas de pan are bread babies. (The word guagua, pronounced wa-wa, is Quechuan.) Some families make their own guaguas de pan at home, but most buy them from the panaderías, or bakeries, which only make them during this time of the year. These bread babies can be up to 12 inches long and are shaped with a ball of dough for the head and a long, tapering ball of dough for the body. They are decorated with icing and may have jam or some other sweet inside."

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