The first of November was the Dia de Muertos or “Day of the Dead”. It’s also know as All Saints Day. One tradition in Guatemala is to go during the week and paint the graves of your ancestors as well as lay flowers. Many people actually go to the cemetery the night of the 1st for a good part of the night. The other thing that Guatemalans do is fly kites. Not your normal made in china kites that you get a Wal-Mart, but homemade kites of varying sizes. I went over to Santiago to see these kites. There were teams of men flying these kites right from the cemetary which ranged in size from 10 feet to over 100 feet tall. There were made with differing sizes of bamboo and something aproximating tissue paper (I believe it was a higher grade than what we use in gift bags). In a mixture of Mayan and Catholic tradition the thought is that the kites can help you get closer to your ancestors (who are in heaven which is of course on top of the sky). I’m happy to report that the kites over about 30 feet tall weren’t actually flown. I’m assuming is was because of some sort of catostophic disaster that occurred in years past. They certainly looked airworthy and were cool to check out nonetheless.
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