A guagua de pan is a type of roll

Roll (food)

Roll as a kind of food, snack, or candy may refer to:* Arctic roll* Black sesame roll* Bread roll* Breakfast roll* Bulkie roll* Cabbage roll* California roll* Cheese roll* Chiko Roll* Cinnamon roll*Croquette* Egg roll* Fritter roll* Kaiser roll...

 shaped and decorated in the form of a small child or infant. They are generally made of wheat and sometimes contain a sweet filling. They are made and eaten as part of ancestral rites in Andean regions of Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, the south of Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, and the north of Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, mainly on the Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality...

, but also as part of agricultural festivals, carnivals, and Christmas.

Etymology

Guagua means baby or small child in Quechua, and pan means bread in Spanish. In the south of Peru and in Bolivia, the rolls are called "tantawawas" or "tantaguaguas", which comes from the Aymará

Aymara language

Aymara is an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Native American languages with over three million speakers. Aymara, along with Quechua and Spanish, is an official language of Peru and Bolivia...

 words tanta (bread) and wawa (child). Originally, bread babies were made to represent children who have died in the past, and the people that celebrated The Day of the Dead would want to honor them and remember them. So they made the bread babies to honor children who have died and used their blood in the jelly that they put in the middle of the sweet bread.

Ecuador

Guaguas de pan are consumed on November 2, the Day of the Dead, in all of the Andean region. They are eaten with colada morada

Colada morada

Colada morada is a typical Ecuadorian beverage prepared with black corn flour and fruits such as naranjilla, babaco, pineapple, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries...

. They are made by families and exchanged among groups of family and friends and given to godchildren. In rural cemeteries and indigenous communities, such as Tungurahua Province

Tungurahua Province

Tungurahua is one of the twenty-four provinces of Ecuador. Its capital is Ambato. The province takes its name from the Tungurahua volcano, which is located within the boundaries of the provinces.-Population:...

, they are used as offerings as part of an ceremony of encounter with one's ancestors.