Dia de los inocentes

That is:  Day of the Innocents.  The story is that when Herod heard that the King of the Jews had been born, he ordered that all of the babies under the age of two be killed.  For ten days, the babies (innocents) were killed, and the slaughter ended on January 6th, so Day of the Innocents is celebrated on that day.  I have never heard this before.  Supposedly it is in the New Testament, but for some reason, no one noticed it until the fifth century.  And why January 6 since Jesus wasn't really born on December 25?  Also, it sounds like echoes of Pharaoh when Moses was born.  Oh well, as my father always said, never let the facts interfere with a good story.

Anyway, if you were to commemorate (celebrate) this horrible deed, how would you do it?  Obviously, with dancing wookies.

Not to mention Darth Vader, Princess Leia, and Stormtroopers.  There were quite a few Luke Skywalkers dancing as well.

Yes, it turns out that in Ecuador, the Day of the Innocents is a cross between Halloween and April Fool's Day, culminating with a parade at night with most of the viewers in costumes that rival those of the paraders.  After the Star Wars float and marchers, came the Seven Deadly Sins.

The sign over the two seated devils says Capital Sins.

Dancing devils

Sloth

Gluttony

The parade is ... well ... rather disorganized.  There are only a few floats and there are several minutes between them, so the spectators walk all over the street.  When a float comes, it is preceded by clowns who tell everyone to back up.  It was so crowded, that at times I could not move, but I could always get a front row view by walking into the middle of the street after a float passed.  After the Deadly Sins came Cleopatra.  Why?  I have no idea.  Why Star Wars?

The Enchantment of Cleopatra

And what is a parade without jugglers and clowns?

Toward the end, there were several Inca representations ... because they had a lot to do with Herod.  But this was not the serious Inti Raymi festival that I saw in Cusco last year.

And these were some of my favorites:

Scarecrows with blades like Wolverine or Edward Scissorhands

The Easter Bunny on a motorcycle

Airplane passengers

As good as the parade was, the spectators were way more fun.  They would walk around between the floats, posing for pictures, and just fooling around.

I got my first hint of what was to come when I walked in the park in the afternoon.

The parade went on until after 11 at night, and some of the children didn't make it to the end, but most did including this little Superman.

I knew about the celebration here on New Year's Eve with the burning manigotes, and came to Cuenca in part because it supposedly has the best New Year's Eve celebration in Ecuador.  But I lucked into the Day of the Innocents and it was way more fun.  New Year's Eve was spread out all over the city since everyone burns their own manigote.  But the entire city was at the parade.  I am told that in the past there was a problem with alcohol (big surprise) so now public drinking is not allowed and no one was selling alcohol.  This was the cleanest, most good natured fun I have seen in a long time.  Well, of course.  How else would you commemorate the Day of the Innocents.