Ceremonia cultural con la energía de la Mama Quilla

Wednesday would have been like any other day had there not been the rarity of the lunar eclipse at night. Cuenca invited all to come and see/participate in the Ceremonia cultural con la energía de la Mama Quilla in Parque de la Madre, another find in Cuenca's cultural to-do-list for the month. I seemed to be the only one to respond to the invitation, however. I showed up to a nearly empty park. In the corner I came upon a circle of these trendy celebrators swaying back and forth in a circle around a fire lit in some "significant design." I knew coming into it that it was not a real ancient tradition, after hearing Lynn, my anthropology teacher denounce it class after class. Ecuadorians have "no identity" from their past. The colonial conquest stole it all away. Everything now is assumed and postulated, and that's what I thought would make this so interesting. So consequently, I was not surprised to find the group of celebrators mostly young social butterflies. But I didn't want to impede on what might be thought as a serious traditional celebration so I walked around the group and found a place to seat myself and furtively observe the following activities. The circle had a long list of planned activities it seemed like, and I came just in time to enjoy it at its climax. When I sat down the group started to break apart and socialize as the list was sought for by the announcer. Finally, he found it. Over the loud speaker he tried to capture the attention of his audience again "Por favor, por favor." He asked the mingling crowd to recreate the circle. They were about to perform a tribal like dance. On came the music, sounding as it came straight from Pure Moods 11. They all started rounding the fire dancing in step to the mystical music of contemporary artists while in the center a man dressed with a flower headdress danced around while hitting his beating his drum in rhythm to the music. The music finally faded and a female announcer explained the significance of this ceremony. "Tonight we celebrate the rebirth of spring and the moon." It was the first night in nearly two weeks that it wasn't pouring down rain. "With the rebirth of spring, we have the opportunity to have our own rebirth." The silence seemed strained to me, but it may have been from my own upwelling of laughter that I had to hold back. The female announcer continued, "we need to begin our new lives the proper way." She asked everyone to show love and affection toward their neighbors, and the audience took a minute to embrace each other fifteen times over. It seemed like it was finally wrapping up. The coordinators of the ceremony passed out popsicles and everyone started to disperse. I really wanted to capture the moment more effectively with my camera than just distance photography, so I finally willed myself over there after encouraging myself that these people are absolutely trendy and out of their minds, they would love to have their picture taken by a gringo foreigner. So I came upon the drummer and the female announcer. Instantly the woman struck up a conversation with me, "why did you not join us?" "Well you have to come in mid March for the next ceremony." I got my pictures and jetted out of there. They were a little too friendly, cult-ish, and insane for me to stick around. After all I had to try and see the lunar eclipse. To my surprise, there it was. In the smallest opening in the clouds. There was already a partial eclipse. It didn't last long, but I thought it was a perfect way to top of the day, like icing on the cake.