Holidays

01 - January

- 1st of January: New Years Day
- 6th of January: Three Kings

02 - February/March

- Carnival starts 3 days before Ash Wednesday and is celebrated in the whole country. Carnival consists mainly of water fights that include everything and everyone. Bear in mind that tourists are a popular target and therefore take care of valuable things.
March/April
- Easter, Palm Sunday, White Thursday and Good Friday are all celebrated throughout the whole country with religious processions.

03 - March/April

Pasen, Palmzondag, Witte donderdag, goede vrijdag, paaszaterdag en paaszondag worden allemaal en in het hele land gevierd met religieuze processies.

05 - May

- 1st of May: Labor Day
- 24th of May: Battle of Pichincha. This is a national holiday on which is celebrated that the freedom fighters beat the Spaniards in 1822, thereby liberating Ecuador.

06 - June

- 24th of June: Johan the Doper: Festivities in and around Otavalo
- 29th juni: Petrus and Paulus. Festivities in Otavalo and other cities in the northern highlands.

07 - July

- 24th July: Birthday of Simon Bolivar = national holiday
- 25th July: founding of the city Guayaquil. Festivities in Guayaquil

08 - August

- Month of art. Cultural activities take place all over Quito
- 10th of August: liberation day of Quito

09 - September

- 1st/15th of September: Fiesta del Yamor. Festivities in Otavalo with masks, costumes and dances
- 20th/26th of September: banana market in Machala
- 24th/28th of September: Fiesta de los logos in Ibarra

10 - October

- 9th of October: Liberation day of Guayaquil
- 12th of October: Day of Columbus. The day that Columbus discovered America is a national holiday that's being called the Dia de la Raza (day of the races) as well. In a lot of smaller Indian communities the day of the sun (Inti Raimi) is being celebrated.
- 31 of October: Halloween

11 - November

- 1st of November: All Souls
- 2nd of November: All Saints: Placing flowers on the cemeteries. This activity is more of a party than it is sad; whole families gather at the graves of deceased family members and they will eat, drink and sacrifice as a tribute to the deceased.
- 3rd of November: Liberation day of Cuenca

12 - December

- 6th of December: Founding of Quito. Bull fights, parades and dancing on the street takes place the whole first week of December.
- 24th of December: Christmas Eve
- 25th of December: Christmas
- 28th/31st of December: Parades and dances take place in the days before the last day of the year, ending with the burning of huge puppets that symbolize the old year on New Years Eve.