Barriletes

On All Saints Day, many people in Latin America flock out to the cemetaries to visit the graves of their loved ones. They spend the day there, thinking of those who have passed on, having a picnic with the family. They decorate the grave sites with marigolds, candles and pine needles. I had learned in Mexico that the marigolds are thought to have some sort of mystical power that attracts the soul of the deceased.

Another thing they do here in Guatemala is celebrate the day with barriletes, which are kites. They believe that as they fly the kite high overhead, the spirit of the dead person is reached and comes down the string to visit the family. If you go out to the graveyard, you will see hundreds of kites flying overhead.

We figured this was a good opportunity to pray for people and to try to get some conversations going, so we headed out to Santiago, one of the biggest places where this goes on.

There were thousands and thousands of people! We took the bus into Santiago, and had to walk a little over a mile to the cemetary. The streets were packed with people making their way, with all sorts of stalls selling everything you can imagine to people. It was like a street fair. I had expected a sense of spirituality or solemnity, but there was none of this. Instead, it was more like going to the fair to see what was happening. I learned that while some people do still believe the things about the spirits, most go out to honor their loved ones and to celebrate a memorial day.

The kites were fantastic!! They were every size you can imagine, from tiny little ones only a few inches wide up to some that were over 60 feet across!! They are handmade with bamboo supports and tissue paper. I looked up close and saw that each peice of tissue paper is painstakingly cut out and glued together by hand - hundreds of hours of work! The designs are breathtaking and so very intricate.

As they would fly (or try to fly) them, kids would run through the crowds, trying to get up enough momentum to get the kite up into the air. It seemed strange to see people running and walking over grave sites! We eventually got over it and sat on some raised concrete sites ourselves, but it did feel very strange!

Sometimes the kites would go up, up, up and then just as quickly come down, down, down - right into the crowd! Then people would scream and run and babies would cry and everyone would laugh and whoop and holler. It was crazy!

In the end, we weren't able to get any conversations going with anyone, but we were able to have some good ones amongst ourselves about all of these traditions and how tradition can sometimes blind us to the lies that we are embracing. It was a good opportunity to pray for people and for this culture, where so many are decieved by their traditions.