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The Ecuadorians are known as party people and it is reflected in the yearly calendar which is dotted with festivals and events in Ecuador. There is nothing like festivals and events in Ecuador to generate the right mood of the gringos. Fiestas like music, parades, dressing up, beauty contests, dancing in the streets, drinking, feasting, bull fighting, cock fighting, lighting firecrackers are the common activities that mark the festivals and events in Ecuador.
Holidays in Ecuador have marked relation with the tradition and culture in Ecuador. The main festivals taking place at Ecuador are:
- Carnaval
- Dia de los Muertos
- Simon Bolivar's Birthday
- Corpus Christi
- Independence Day
- Flower Festival
- Harvest Festival
- Columbus Day
- New Year in Ecuador
- Epiphany
- Labor Day
- Founder's Day
- Christmas in Ecuador
- Battle of Pichincha
Most of the festivals and events in Ecuador are celebrated with great enthusiasm. There are scores of festival days for villages and towns and some of them are there which no one seems to know the importance, still they perform it as a ritual.
Here is a brief overview of some of the festivals and events in Ecuador, which have great impact in the social lives of the Ecuadorians.
- Carnaval: This is the biggest festival in Ecuador. The festival is marked by an event called water fights, where no one is spared. The Peach Festival on March 4 is also a very enjoyable festival. The peaches are simply fantastic.
- The Carnaval is followed by the Semana Santa or the Holy Week. This begins on Palm Sunday a week before the Easter Sunday. The Ecuadorians buy palms and weave them into ornaments. During the Semana holy processions take place throughout the country. The Good Friday procession is very colorful in Quito. There are also Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturdays, which are all public holidays.
- Agricultural Fairs take place along with street concerts, merriment, marking the Battle of Tapi on April 21 after the Easter.
Corpus Christi is celebrated in the towns of the Central highlands, usually on the ninth Thursday after the Easter. It is mainly a form of the Pre-Christian Harvest Festival.
- The festival of Saint John the Baptist emerges on the 24th of June. It is a great festival where people dance in the streets in the strangest of the costumes.
- After the San Juan or Saint John , come San Pedro and San Pablo (Saint Peter and Saint Paul) on June 28 and 29. Big parades take place during this time.
- The country's most popular fiesta takes place on September 23-24. It is known as La Fiesta de la Mama Negra in Latacunga or the Fiesta Virgen de las Marcedes. Men dress up like women and blacken their faces followed by series of activities.
- The All Souls Day takes place on November 2, when people light candles in the cemeteries and lay flowers and gifts in honor of their ancestors. The Independence Day is on November 3. Latacunga on November 11, Loja's on November 18, Quito's Foundation Day is celebrated on first week of December. The Banos Festival takes place on December 16.
- Chrismas and off course New Year is obviously good times for parties and enjoying with families.
Apart from this there are festivals like, Epiphany or Three King's Day (January 6), National Community Spirit Day (February 27), it is originally celebrated in memory of the Tarqui War but nowadays celebrated with civic activities and events. There is also the Columbus Day celebrated on October 12, to mark the day when Christopher Columbus first arrived to this continent.
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