Guatemalans remember their dead with giant kites as Day of the Dead begins
NOVEMBER 1, 2019 / 7:31 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
2 MIN READ
SANTIAGO SACATEPEQUEZ, Guatemala (Reuters) - Thousands gathered in Central Guatemala on Friday to watch giant kites take flight, a local tradition intended to reconnect the living and the deceased, as Day of the Dead celebrations kicked off throughout the region.
Day of the Dead, a holiday that marries Catholic rituals and pre-Hispanic beliefs, is celebrated throughout Latin America on the first two days of November.
The holiday’s reach is wide, extending to Catholic communities as far away as the Philippines, and it takes a different form in each geography.
In Mexico, families pack cemeteries to adorn graves with marigolds and candles, also erecting altars in their homes to welcome the dead. Women and men alike smear their faces with white paint and ring their eyes in black, channelling the iconic “Catrinas,” or elegant skulls.
More:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-guatemala-dayofthedead/guatemalans-remember-their-dead-with-giant-kites-as-day-of-the-dead-begins-idUKKBN1XC00I?rpc=401&
Kites or barriletes on Day Of The Dead, Dia de los Muertos, ceremony in cemetery of Sumpango, Guatemala, Central America. - Image ID: CWXBCR
Re-emerging Guatemala astounds with history, culture
By NORMA MEYER | meyer.norma@yahoo.com |
PUBLISHED: June 7, 2017 at 4:57 pm | UPDATED: June 9, 2017 at 9:14 am
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The royal court of the All Saints Kite Festival in the Santiago Sacatepequez cemetery on Day of the Dead. (Photo by Norma Meyer)
At my feet, the name “Lucio” is marked atop a dirt grave but I doubt he’s RIP right now. I’m in a rural Guatemala cemetery, encircled by a kaleidoscope of colossal five-story-tall kites and throngs of festive mourners who are using the flag-fluttering tissue-paper conduits to communicate with the dead. Firecrackers snappily explode and onlookers raucously cheer as multicolored mosaic-like kites — too huge to fly — are hoisted upright by strong young men at the All Saints Day Kite Festival.
It is an extraordinary age-old spiritual spectacle. Guatemala is the only country in the world that on Nov. 1, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), launches dazzling hand-made kites to send messages to ancestors in the beyond and coax them briefly back to Earth.
Just walking up to here is lively enough. En route, I watch a village herder pause in the road and squeeze a goat’s teat to stream milk into a Styrofoam cup to sell to a thirsty passer-by; then I jostle through celebratory crowds past marimba bands, tortilla-makers, a whole roasted pig with an apple in its mouth, angel figurine vendors, and much more.
Once inside the Santiago Sacatepequez graveyard, running children pull strings of octagon-shaped kites, punctuating gray skies with rainbow swirls. Indigenous Maya women, clad in brocaded traditional textiles, decorate dusty plots and concrete tombs with pine needles and bright orange marigolds whose scents will help direct the deceased down. Memorial candles beckon next to food offerings of fiambre, a cold meat salad. Elaborate, tethered 50-foot-wide kites flaunt religious, cultural and political themes — Maya warriors, Christian crosses, Mother Nature, a controversial hydroelectric plant. Crafted by townsfolk over months, the circular masterpieces are created with scavenged bamboo, tissue paper, a glue of yucca flour, and ropes from the tequila-producing maguey plant, and are extremely fragile — one suddenly cracks in half and topples over, sending myself and others frantically running.
More:
https://www.ocregister.com/2017/06/07/re-emerging-guatemala-a-feast-for-the-senses/
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