essentially, it is a day to remember ancestors and loved ones who have passed on. cemeteries transform into a huge festival/family reunion.
flower vendors offer piles of assorted blooms in vibrant hues, to be placed in the cubbies and stone vases that adorn loved ones´resting places.
food vendors offer elote asado (grilled corn on the cob with lime and salt, my personal fav); fiambre - an elaborate salad piled high with vegetables, boiled eggs, cold meats; sweet glazed donut holes, pupusas (a borrowed traditional salvadoran stable - grilled cheese stuffed corn tortillas, with pickled cabbage and tomato salsa), ice cream in bell-trimmed carts, and a myriad more.
children beg for balloons from the balloon vendors, while adults whisp
er prayers and private conversations to names on mausoleums, or mounds of earth. gravesites are sprinkled with flower petals and long, fragrant pine needles, and the favorite foods of the deceased arranged and shared in an annual family picnic.
er prayers and private conversations to names on mausoleums, or mounds of earth. gravesites are sprinkled with flower petals and long, fragrant pine needles, and the favorite foods of the deceased arranged and shared in an annual family picnic.in the community of santiago sacatepuquez, there is an additional tradition, for which they are well-known, in these parts anyway: the flying and display of elaborate, hand- made kites.
the symbolism of kite-flying is easy to grasp: the kites commune in the heavens with the spirits of ancestors and loved ones who have passed.
here are some pics:
hundreds of kites in various sizes sport intricate tissue paper designs, mimicking the traditional patterns in woven guatemalan cloth.
a variety of youth and community associations also gather together to make large and xtra-large a kites with social statements: about rebuilding and peace after war, caring for the natural creation, faith in god, uniting as a community to overcome current-day exploitation by mines, multi-national corps, and Spanish Conquest-descended plantation owners.
ready for take-off:
then there´s the big-daddies. these kites are display only. and require careful, complicated and athletic assembly by teams of 20 young men.
first, there is the unfolding of the enormous kite:
then comes the assembly of huge bamboo "logs" to make a frame the kite is fastened to :
then comes the lifting, with rope and pulley system: 
and if all goes right, you´ve got an upright impressive masterpiece. if it doesn´t, you hear the bamboo crack, and watch the 20 young men scramble to lower the kite before it fully buckles, and then haul in the replacement bamboo, tape and ropes. and give ér a second try.
and eventually, with several teams of ambitious folks, you get a decked-out cemetery that looks like this:
and that´s how you celebrate nov 1st.
cheers.
