Novena

During the month of December, I was so lucky to be invited to experience Novena with my host family and their family.
A Novena is a religious, catholic ceremony. The Novena goes on for nine consecutive days and is a way of giving thanks and preparing our hearts for Jesus Christ to return.

We met up every evening at 7 o'clock, half an hour from where I live, and had an hour of religious ceremony followed by half an hour of food and games.

During the religious ceremony, we had a book that was used as a guide for what was going to happen during the Novena and a girl from the family was in charge of all the Novenas. We started 9 days before Christmas and had the last Novena on Christmas Eve.
Every day during the Novena there were prayers and readings from the bible, and otherwise sessions where everyone hugged, people said sorry, we burned all the bad things that has happened during the last year and we made a cross out of candle lights.

Afterwards, when the religious part had finished, we had a game, where everyone had the chance to win presents (during the days I managed to win candy, cheap make-up and nail polish and some small bowls) and then we had varying food, everything from sandwiches to pizza to paella.

It was interesting to experience and I was really happy that I was invited to participate in the Novenas. This has given me an experience so different from what I would have been able to experience in Denmark.
This is one of the reasons why I am here: To experience and embrace the cultural differences between Denmark and Ecuador.

Feliz navidad!

Novena

Christmas tree
Juletræ

I løbet af december måned var jeg så heldig at blive inviteret til at opleve en novena sammen med min værtsfamilie og deres familie.
En novena er en katolsk ceremoni der foregår i 9 på hinanden følgende dage. Det bruges til at give tak og til at forberede vores hjerter på at Jesus Kristus kommer tilbage.

Vi mødtes hver dag klokken 7 om aftenen et sted der ligger en halv time fra hvor jeg bor. Vi startede ud med en times religiøs ceremoni, efterfulgt af en halv times lege og spisning.

Under den religiøse ceremoni fulgte vi en bog, der guidede os igennem novenaen. Det var en pige lidt ældre end mig fra familien, der stod for afholdelsen af novenaen. Vi startede 9 dage før jul og havde den sidste novena juleaften.
Hver eneste novena bestod af bøn og oplæsning fra biblen og derudover skete der ting som at alle krammede, folk sagde undskyld, vi brændte alle de dårlige ting der er sket i løbet af 2015 og vi lavede et kors ud af stearinlys.

Efter den religiøse del havde vi en leg, hvor man kunne vinde præmier (i løbet af dagene vandt jeg slik, billig make-up, neglelak og to små skole). Når vi havde færdiggjort legene fik vi mad, hvilket varierede fra sandwich til pizza til paella.

Det var en spændene oplevelse og jeg var glad for at jeg var blevet inviteret med. Det var en oplevelse så anderledes fra hvad jeg havde været i stand til at opleve i Danmark.
Og det er netop også en af grundene til at jeg er i Ecuador: For at opleve forskellene i kultur.

Feliz navidad!