Dia de los Santos

Well, October 31st came and went and I didn’t dress up, or trick or treat, and I’m pretty sure I was asleep by 9:30! But November 1st, Dia de los Santos was a real celebration. Andrew and I took a bus to Antigua, then a bus (headed to Guate) to San Lucas and finally a bus to Santiago, Sacatepequez. (I’m just really diggin’ the public transportation—new life skill!!) There we followed the crowd through winding roads, past vendors of every sort, to the party at the top of the hill-- in the cemetery. Surely cemeteries all over Latin America were filled with families, flowers, and food on this day. And from any rooftop, in any town, on any day you can almost always spot a kite… but only a few communities host kite festivals on this special day. For Santiago, this was the 110th year of kite flying. Many people view the tradition as a means of communication with their ancestors..a connection between the worldly realm and the deceased. The tradition of the giant kite making is passed down through families and is a great source of pride. So… It was the day of the dead but my senses were completely alive. We had to stop wandering around. We just sat and took in the grandness of the day—the colors, sounds, smells… the balance between stillness and movement, life and death.

From the cemetery we watched the 16 foot kites take wing…while only the tops of the gigantic 60 foot kites peered up over the hill below. It was so much to take in. As if the intricate, colorful designs weren’t enough beauty, they were framed by a celestial blue sky and pure white clouds…until they plummeted past the rolling, patch worked hills, mountaintops, and sometimes fell into a cushion of cornfields.

At one point Andrew asked me, “Is it part of this also to make a lot of noise?” Ha! No.. I think that is just a natural product of life here—the constant clinging of the ice cream man’s bell as he rolls his cart over the graves. Bombas---BOOM!! Painfully strong sound, followed by the delicate swishing of tissue paper and the flickering of kite tails (which are believed to scare away evil spirits, giving good spirits the freedom to enjoy the day with their living relatives). Noisemakers for sale—eery noises, oopy loopy noises, cranking, whistling, etc, etc. The only sound that wasn’t in the cemetery was silence.

(enter, Mariachi)

And the smells. Smoke that had absorbed the smells of roasting corn, seasoned meat, onions, blue tortillas. Mmmmm…

Taste. We couldn’t put a name to the taste of the traditional candies…except for tasty. Rich, perhaps. But we did a loooot of tasting throughout the day.

What I also noticed is that we were especially sensitive to the wind. It’s absence was felt when it died down and anticipation grew as it picked up.

So, the challenge for today: Sit somewhere—anywhere—for a few minutes and use all 5 senses. And if, on Halloween weekend, you did more trick-or-treating than remembering of the saints that have molded your life, do so with peace...