Day of the Dead is celebrated here on November 1st. It’s a day that’s similar to Thanksgiving in that there is special food (Fiambre), and it’s a simple holiday mostly celebrated with family. But the point is to honor the dead, to keep up the graves of our ancestors. People come out to the cemetaries in droves — they are either selling flowers, selling services (like painting a tombstone, or cleaning it), or are there to freshen up the graves of their loved ones. Worship services are held right in the church in the cemetary, and people pray by the gravesites too. Yet, there is a carnival-like atmosphere in the air – vendors set up booths outside the cemetary and sell fair-like food and have little games.
Droves of people flowing through the cemetary all day long
The single largest element is flowers. Tons of flowers. Pick up trucks filled with flowers in the back, women, women, women everywhere with bunches of flowers carried on their heads, children weaving flower wreaths by hand in the park….. I bought a boquet of beautiful calalilies, which are about $15/stem in the US. I got 7 calalilies for about 50 cents!
Indigenous women carrying flowers and water on their heads to the graves
The cemetaries in Guatemala are already colorful and cheerful looking. They aren’t the depressing, cold, stone, grey of the places of the dead in the US. The coffins are above ground and it almost seems that you could just sit and have a cup of coffee with the deceased. It’s actually pleasant to spend the day amongst the brilliant blues, the sunny yellows…and when you add the flowers, greenery, and fresh paint, it’s quite festive.
Families beautifying the gravesites of loved ones
Another element of Day of the Dead is that the kids all fly kites in the cemetary (maybe a way to give them something to do while the adults clean and prune the graves). Some cities are known for their kite festivals that day with huge, artistic kites.
A young boy flying a kite in the cemetary
What particularly struck me was the mix of sorrow with joy. It was the warm life of colors, flowers, kids with kites, festive food, and families all coming together in a place of death. It was irony of seeing the solidarity and togetherness of families in a place to remember those who have left them and surely have made them feel a little less together….
An indigenous family mourning at a gravesite
The whole day was simply beautiful. I wish we had some kind of official ongoing healing/connection with our loved ones in the US. Perhaps we’ll start a similar tradition with our own family when we get home!
