On a String and a Prayer

There many holidays throughout mexico and central american and they all become a blur after awhile: Christmas, Easter and Independence Day are the major dates on the calendar and each event takes many months of preparation. The Semana Santa celebrations (Holy Week) in Antigua are the world's largest after the original in Granada, Spain and the societies that participate practice all year round.

Once Independence Day, September the fifteenth has passed, October rolls around. Halloween, that north american night of costumes, candy and adults dressing up as their favorite alter ego, doesn't extend this far.

October is given over to preparations for Maximon, the cigar-smoking, rum-swilling cowboy, who's birthday falls around the 28th and then a more somber and serious holiday approaches.

On November 1st and 2nd, known as the Day of the Departed, followed by the Day of All Souls, is a time for a reconnection and recollection of memories of those family members that have gone on. These are two solemn yet joyous days of ceremonies for reuniting the living with those who have passed on to another plane of existence.

Every cemetery, no matter how small or how grand is transformed: family members, one and all sweep, paint and decorate tombs, graves and simple wooden crosses. Easter is reserved for the death and resurrection of Christ. The Dia de los Difuntos is reserved for the family.

Special kites will be flown, with a symbolic message of 'welcome home'. One's ancestors might be hiding in the rain or in the clouds above, and watching over their family as much as ever, except from a different dimension.

Memories are shared, and food is served for the enjoyment of those present and missing: perhaps a few beers are shared, while reminiscing. When the kites are flown it's not meant for the tourists: the kite serves as a astral connection and the string leads the departed soul back to the family, who wait by the newly refurbished grave for those they've loved and lost, perhaps to return, at least for a day or a meal.

Incense, made of pine resin and known as copal, is burnt with the hope that the smoke will rise and signal to the spirits above that their family is waiting for them, hoping to hear their voices once again.

The celebration reflects the secret heart of Guatemala, where the dead are honored daily and kept alive if only in memory, for as long as the family remembers, the departed are always nearby. In Latin America the family is everything. These are two special days to renew the ties that bind and the cords that link the past and the present. Above all, it's a gesture that says, as far as the kite can fly, "the 'light's on and somebody's home...c'mon in/down."