Dia de Todos Santos

Not surprisingly, Guatemala (and most of Latin America) celebrates the days around Halloween differently than we do in the States. October 31st itself, officially Dia de las Brujas, is not widely celebrated. My family here is a little different, because the husband of one aunt is currently in the states. Following American tradition, he sent us lots of costumes for the kids. Since no one goes out trick-or-treating (and the rain in the evening prevents anyone from going out at all), everyone got dressed up and danced around in the house. Our own Halloween party was pretty funny and colorful!

The real holiday here is November 1st, Dia de Todos Santos (All Saint's Day). This is a day to remember the dead and to visit them in their resting place in the cemetery. Before the coming of the Spaniards, Mayan religion believed in the after-life and reincarnation, so that the dead were never really gone far from their loved ones. With the coming of Catholicism, the idea of reincarnation was not encouraged, but the Catholic idea of heaven merged with the original Mayan belief of life after death. Religion in Guatemala is always a mix of Mayan and Catholic beliefs, and this holiday is no different.

Cemeteries in Guatemala are made up of mausoleums, with the dead entombed above ground. The mausoleum becomes a symbol of the loved one's final resting place, a physical and metaphorical home. On Dia de Todos Santos, the families visit the cemetery to decorate these homes and to spend time with their dead. This is not a sad or mournful holiday--instead, families remember their loved ones and celebrate their memories. They paint their tombs, generally with the same color as their own house, use flowers and pine needles to decorate, and spend the day next to their resting place. The whole village is filled with flowers in preparation for this fiesta. Many families have at least one meal in the cemetery, leaving out a plate of their loved one's favorite food. This is also a day famous for the flying of kites, as a symbol of souls going up to their resting place. The sky is filled with kites of all shapes and sizes, most of which, due to the winds this time of year, generally end up in the lake.

For my family, Dia de Todos Santos has for the past few years taken on a special meaning. Catarina, the mother of the family, passed away at the age of 44 a few years ago. Visiting and decorating her tomb has become a tradition in the family, as it has for many others who have lost loved ones. In preparation, we frequently visited the market to buy flowers of all shapes and sizes for the occasion. We made coronas, flower crowns to hang over the graves. David, the youngest boy in the family, went to paint re-paint and clean up his mom's mausoleum, so that it would be ready for the big day. At dawn on the morning of November 1st, we carried our flowers and pine needles to the cemetery. Even this early, the streets were packed, and there was a human traffic jam at the single entrance. Hundreds of villagers were doing the same thing--visiting their loved ones and decorating their homes in this world.

We decorated Catarina's tomb carefully, making sure the flowers were distributed symmetrically and that the little orange and brown mausoleum looked beautiful for her. The children would touch the tombs and whisper to their relatives. Angel, and recovering alcoholic, returned to pour a beer at Catarina's grave (a symbol of both his disease and Catarina's love of a cerveza). Throughout the day, we would return to the cemetery, to look around for graves of people we knew. The process of decorating Catarina's grave was intimate and loving. Despite never having met her, by the end of the day I felt a connection with her, as if she was somehow there with us, among the flowers and colors of the cemetery. I think this is why Dia de Todos Santos is such an important holiday here--it is a way to remember your loved ones, and to feel their presence every year.

Despite the celebration, this day has another, more sinister significance. Not all of the spirits that come out on this day are considered to be friendly. For this reason people do not like to leave their homes or make any trips. Many believe that the spirits are out on the lake and the highways, and one can be caught up if they stray too far. People who pass away on this day are thought to be killed by the spirits. At night, groups of masked and cloaked men run through the streets. It is a night of mischief, and people do not stray outside of the safety of their houses.