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The two most important towns that have giant kite flying on Todos los santos, All Saints’ Day and Día de los difuntos, Day of the Dead, are Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepéquez. However, both days are celebrated throughout Guatemala by going to the cemetery to remember the dead, to take flowers, to clean and paint the burial sites and crypts and to feast at the graves. That’s where the colorful fiambre chapin plays an important role since it is food that you can take already prepared to the cemetery and does not go bad for a long time. In the fiambre dish most of the vegetables are pickled and the meats are cold-cuts.

In the picture above, you can have a panoramic view of the cemetery of Sumpango. Below, there’s another video that shows what happens when a giant kite is not able to take off and fly. Enjoy!

Those of you, who have followed the daily updates of La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo for a while, would know already how much I like to name certain entries with titles of films. If you look in the past 930 days, you would find the titles of some of my favorite films. Can you name some of the film titles I have borrow in the past?

Today, I was tempted to call the entry The Dark Knight, but I decided that The Kite Runner was a better fit. For those who have not seen The Kite Runner film yet, please do yourself a favor and get online right away and order it for your next netflix/blockbuster delivery. You will not regret it. Besides, watching the film The Kite Runner is much faster than actually reading the book (although, not as rewarding).

Answers to the questions in previous comments:

Cemeteries should be one of the monthly topics on the daily photo team, or has it been already?
No, I don’t think cemeteries has been a theme day. Thanks for suggesting it Manolo, I have already passed your request to the proper authorities .

There was a big procession through town [La Antigua] last night. Did you take pictures?
No, I did not take any pictures of it. We did see it from two blocks away though. Because of this procession, it took us the same amount of time to cross La Antigua Guatemala as it did to drive from Santiago Sacatepéquez to La Antigua. Go figure.

I’m curious about that graveyard, though. Why is it all bare earth, with no grass or plants?
Disparity and inequity follow Guatemalans to their resting grounds. The bare ground graves belong to the poor.

Looking hard at the pictures, it was hard to pick much detail about what type of materials were used, and construction methods?

Once again, I borrow another paragraph from the masterful article by Ignacio Ochoa: Messengers in the Wind.

All kite materials are natural. The glue is made from yucca flour mixed with pieces of lemon peel and water. Ropes used for kite strings are made from maguey, the plant from which tequila is extracted. Kite tails are made from woven cloth (to which people often attach hand-written messages to guide the spirits in their journey from heaven to earth). Woven stalks of castilla, a plant similar to wheat, form the frames of smaller kites, while the largest frames are made from the bamboo gathered on the coast.

Below, I decided to share with you, my dear visitors and commenters, other photos and a video clip as way to expand on the answers and to get a better idea about the celebrations around the Day of the Dead in Guatemala. Perhaps next year we will decide to take a trip to Todos los Santos Cuchumatán to learn about another way of celebrating the Dí­a de todos los Santos (All Saints Day); please reserve your seats ahead of time, especially MO since the road this town would really make car-sick.

As always, click on the thumbnails to load a larger photograph:

Below a short video clip of some young Santiagueros running around to pull the Giant kite line (rope) to raise the kite higher and higher.

Here’s another quote taken from the article written by Ignacio Ochoa and published in Revue Magazine about the history of kite making in Santiago Sacatepéquez under the name of Messenges in the Wind.

At 4 a.m. on November 2, everyone moves toward the cemetery with candles so the spirits can return to their celestial home. The townspeople raise the giant kites one final time to guide the spirits back to heaven. Later that evening, the kites that were torn by the winds are burned inside the cemetery, the smoke showing the way back to heaven for any vagabond spirits. The surviving kites are exhibited in the local Catholic Church during a novena for the deceased, after that they are burned, and the ashes are buried in the cemetery, completing the annual ritual for the Day of the Dead in Santiago Sacatepéquez. (continue reading… )

Hello, hello is there anybody out there? Are there any comments or feedback regarding the giants kites?

Ignacio Ochoa has published a recent article about the history of kite making in Santiago Sacatepéquez under the name of Messenges in the Wind. Below the first paragraph of this wonderful article:

On November 1 and 2, a powerful force stirs in all the towns of Guatemala. Traditional markets are filled with flowers of sempa (orange marigolds), chrysanthemums, wild daisies and the smell of copal—a pre-Columbian incense made from pine resin. People clean family graves and adorn them with cut-out tissue paper called papel picado, wreaths of fresh flowers and candles. They also honor the dead with festive foods such as candied fruits, tamales and fiambre (a cold meat and vegetable dish prepared only at this time of year). These days mark the celebration of El dí­a de los difuntos or the Day of the Dead, a very important festival throughout Guatemala, especially in the predominantly indigenous town of Santiago Sacatépequez, where it is the occasion for a unique kite-flying ritual of the Kakchiquel people, integrating the Catholic feast of All Saints with pre-Columbian Mayan practices of remembering the dead. The kites are made as a way to communicate with the dead, symbolically attracting the spirits to earth at this special time of the year, when family members, living and dead, are reunited. (continue reading… )

If you would like to have the following giant kite flying image as a wallpaper for you desktop or laptop computer, as always, just download the following photo (1200×900). You can click to thumbnail below to get a larger preview. Enjoy!

Come on, just because you’re dead it doesn’t mean you can not have access to good coffee. This coffee field is right behind the San Lázaro Cemetery in La Antigua Guatemala. This photo was taken from this crypts in San Lázaro cemetery.

You do remember the series about the San Lazaro Cemetery, right?.

It is so peaceful to walk on the tree-lined cobblestone street with benches on the side in your way in or out of the San Lázaro Cemetery. I guess a visit to this cemetery could be a much needed break from the ‘hectic’ strolls around La Antigua Guatemala.

I want to thank Sompopo, Patsy Poor and MarieMc for suggesting a visit to the cemetery. It is time to wave goodbye to our dead and continue to document the lives of the living.

It must be nice to know your resting place it’s taken care of by a family mausoleum. In the picture above you get a close-up view of the Solorzano Najera family mausoleum. Who are they? Who knows; a random pick by the viewfinder on the way out of the cemetery.

There is a broken bell in the San Lázaro Church, which is located inside the premises of the San Lázaro Cemetery. The broken bell serves as testament of the many earthquakes this land has experienced and its resilient will to continue to toll for the dead.

Does anyone care to translate the sign below the broken bell?

One aspect I forgot to mention was that there is full-size church inside the San Lazaro Cemetery in La Antigua Guatemala which I believe goes by the same name. There are some niches in the church façade, just like in many churches around Antigua Guatemala.

A few more photos and we will wave goodbye to the cemetery series. I hope you have enjoyed the the bird’s eye overview of the San Lázaro Cemetery.

This niche and the surrounding walls was basically the only color I found at the San Lázaro Cemetery. This piece was between two sets of above-ground crypts; the set on the right was empty and the set on the left was not vacant.

Perhaps it is not too late to introduce some of the wonderful Antigüeño color palette into the La Antigua Guatemala’s main public cemetery.

The cross is another element that repeats itself often in the cemetery. Actually, the cross is an element omnipresent throughout La Antigua Guatemala.

Mausoleums are bought for an entire family most of the time. Each family member has a designated niche as his resting place. The different vaults are marked with a plaque or tombstone.

Asking around about the white color of the cemetery and the why most crypts are above ground, nobody has a definite answer.

JM Magaña, La Antigua Guatemala’s second conservator and the pen behind the architecture column in Recrearte Magazine, pointed out that until 1976 La Antigua Guatemala was painted all white too. At the time the cemetery was created in the 1800s, there were a couple waves of plagues and thus every thing was white-washed with live limestone to disinfect and maintain the town virus free. This coincided with the introduction of coffee in 1875 (more or less) and thus an abundance of wealth which provided the necessary fund to build all those mausoleums. There was a massive earthquake that hit Guatemala in 1976 and destroyed a great deal of buildings and houses in Guatemala. In fact, it is said that the 1976 earthquake changed forever the look and feel of Guatemala. La Antigua Guatemala was not saved and thus reconstruction began after the quake and with it, the color lime-stone paint came. This change in color did not reach the cemetery.

So far this is the best I can do.

Volcán de Fuego Eruption side note: Fire Volcano erupted into a gorgeous nature show of light and lava three days ago. I hadn’t said anything because I did not know since I’ve been in bed sick with the flu for the past week. Nonetheless, if you follow this link to MyBootsnMe, you can see photos and description of this awesome show that nature gave us. I even got some photos from one of the readers of LAGDP. Is it safe to come to La Antigua Guatemala? You bet. Volcán de Fuego is still far enough from La Antigua Guatemala.

When I decided to enter the cemetery of San Lázaro I was expecting a very chaotic cemetery full of the antigüeño color palette with many crypts and above grounds burial chambers and perhaps some mausoleums. Surprise, surprise! The only color was provided by the many flower arrangements, there were mostly mausoleums, some nichos (above grounds crypts) and just a few crypts.

Because there are so many mausoleums, the style varies a lot. I will show just a few samples to get the idea. Today’s picture shows a mausoleum with many column as its façade and with its white stucco it could probably pass as an original Greek mausoleum. This is a tribute from La Antigua Guatemala’s City Hall to the Teachers’ Union of La Antigua Guatemala.

The only underground crypts that I saw in the San Lázaro Cemetery in La Antigua Guatemala are in this green lot, located all the way in the rear of the cemetery. These crypts are in the west end of the cemetery and thus protected, somehow, from floods by the many mausoleums in the front of the cemetery. Wealth could also be factor. This lot represents a very small percentage of the size of the cemetery, so I believe, this section is allocated for the very poor. Once again, the white color is present in las tumbas (tombs) and it is very rare for a Latin American cemetery to only be painted in white. The mystery continues…

As explained by Sompopo, the Spanish term nicho (niche) translates into English as above ground crypts. Criptas (crypts) are reserved in Spanish for underground burial places or vaults. Above ground vaults are nichos (I think, don’t trust me on this one since I am no expert). Nichos are normally bought by people who can afford them, but are not wealthy or belong to a wealthy family otherwise they would have a mausoleum. The people who can not afford a nicho bury their dead in a normal crypt (underground).

Sompopo and Ale pointed out a couple things about the recent photos: (1) Are all the crypts above ground and (2) why are all the mausoleums white wash? Without any research just yet, I began thinking about the reasons while taking into accounts what Sompopo said about New Orleans cemetery and the water table. I reasoned that since the San Lázaro cemetery is the west end part of La Antigua Guatemala and since the city has a slight inclination that goes from east to west and the river and rainfall flows west, just maybe, the cemetery became inundated; thus most of the burial chambers are above ground, including the nichos. The white color of all the above ground crypts and mausoleums, I don’t know yet, but it may be related. I promise I will have an answer for you before the cemetery series is over.

Guatemala’s real culture is syncretism and thus death plays an important role in traditions and culture. Guatemala is the real ‘melting pot’ and the final product is called mestizo. A mestizo is an individual that comes in many shades of brown and she is made up from a combination of AmerIndian, European, African, Asian and Arab. Syncretism and mestizism go together well and that is why there is no conflict with including some or many Mayan rituals, including death rituals, in a everyday Catholic or Christian service. Obviously, a single entry is not enough to describe such a complex human being, but we have to start somewhere and since Patsy Poor mentioned that recent studies showed that the U.S. will be brown (mestizo) in 50 years.

The mausoleums shown thus far, which to me seem very stately and for the wealthy, are not by any means the biggest of more opulent mausoleums. Actually, Guatemala has the largest mausoleum known to humankind; it is called El Mirador. Around El Petén, where the pyramids of El Mirador are located, there are over dozen Mayan cities with huge mausoleums known as Mayan pyramids or ruins nowadays; Tikal being the most widely known of the bunch. A real wonder of the world!