Dia de los Muertos
o Dia de los Todos Santos

The first of November is all saints day. Families celebrate All Saints by coming close to their relatives and laying flowers on the graves, having a picnic, and writing messages/prayers on kites that they then fly.

We headed to the cemetary in Santiago Sacatepeces to watch their kite flying extravaganza. There is always that one town that goes all out for any given holiday, you know like the town that glows with Christmas lights hanging on every treebranch. Well, Santiago is that place for Los Muertos.

photos below:

1. In the foregrownd are mayan ladies resting by a grave, eating lunch and watching the kites. Their dark blue skirts indicate that they are from Santiago.


2. Graves: there are many styles of graves- and of course in vibrant colors then decorated with the brightest flowers around at this time of year. It is beautiful.
a. bare mounds- a little spooky especially the ones for children. It seemed perfectly acceptable to walk/run or even pull an ice cream cart over them.
b. cemented graves with mini gardens inside. The cheaper verson is to simply pour cement over the dirt mound.
c. mosoleums- hard to see in this picture but they are larger structures for an entire family.
d. shelves in a large wall- unfortunately not in any of these pictures


3. Sky is full of kites. Most of the ones in this picture are about 8 feet in diameter. The tail is composed of messages attached to a string. Beware when these kites fall! The oooh and ahhhhs of the crowd will usually give you ample warning to run over a few graves and out of danger. In addition to the larger kites, children and adults fly smaller kites. It is quite a sight. We were nearly clotheslined a few times too from the zig-zag maze of kite string.


4. Supersize Me
Around the perimeter were dispalyed 6-8 supersized kites. Each piece is hand cut of tissue paper and glued on like a quilt. It is hard to tell from this view but the patterns are very intricate and each shape and color have particular meanings. Often a kite like this will center around a theme. I think this one was the environmentalist kite with messages about deforestation and not throwing trash into the rivers. To give you an idea of the scale, I am 5'4" and standing at the bottom right in a brown hoodie.


5-7. The Making Of
a. lots of bamboo
b. attaching- takes at least 20 men
c. first, the kite arrives just finished and needs to be unrolled.