Spanish Students Honor Ecuadorian Tradition

On New Year's Eve in Guayaquil, Ecuador people burn large dolls or monigotes. They may fill them with old newspapers or small notes about regrets, mistakes or negative events from the previous year, then incinerate them to make a fresh start. Spanish IV students reviewed irregular preterite verbs, wrote a short paragraph about things they want to leave behind in 2024 and safely lit them on fire during class one day this week. We burned away the bad and made light to invite joy in the new year. This honoring of traditions in Spanish-speaking countries will be repeated in March for Advanced Spanish and Las Fallas from Spain.