A guagua de pan (bread baby) is a type of 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, Peru, Bolivia, the south of Colombia, and the north of Argentina, mainly on the Day of the Dead, but also as part of agricultural festivals, carnivals, and Christmas.
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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 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.
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. 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, they are used as offerings as part of an ceremony of encounter with one's ancestors.