El Día de los Santos, or All Saints Day is a time to honor and celebrate the lives of the dead. The week before this holiday, which is celebrated on November 1st, people all over Guatemala can be seen honing their kite flying skills. The occasion is celebrated in most of Guatemala by flying kites as a reminder to those who have long since passed away that their family members are still here thinking about them.
But in some towns these are not just any kites. In Santiago Sacatepéquez or Sumpango (both near Antigua), while children are working on their own smaller creations, neighborhoods, churches and communities work together to build round, colorful giant kites as tall as 30 or 40 feet! These kites are then flown over the cemeteries and it is believed that the higher they go the better chance their ancestors and relatives who are buried there will see them. It becomes a kind of competition to see who can go the highest (hence the practicing).
In the villages, the weekend before All Saint’s Day is spent decorating the tombs of one’s family members. The day before November 1st, women and men in their colorful traditional indigenous dress can be seen making their way to the cemeteries carrying huge bushels of flowers and branches of palm trees on their heads and backs. Behind them come the food vendors pushing carts and carrying tanks of gas to set up French fry and fried chicken stands to sell while the families work. They spend all day building huts around the already colorfully painted tombs and then cover them in all different types of flowers.
The traditional meal eaten on el Día de los Santos is called Fiambre which is a mix of all sorts of cold cuts of meat including chicken, tongue, beef, ham, hot dogs, and sausage mixed with vegetables including carrots, potatoes, string beans, peas and cabbage. It is decorated with olives, hard boiled eggs, cheese, anchovies, sardines, peppers, and onions and then seasoned with oil, vinegar, and salt. The story behind fiambre is that a wealthy and important woman had planned a banquet and instructed her maid as to how to prepare all of the different foods. The woman left the dinner in the maid’s charge and went to get ready. The maid’s lover, however, called her away and the maid forgot all about the dinner until the guests arrived. She then panicked and threw all the foods together onto a large platter. The guests loved it and the meal was a great success and became a national custom.
In a small town up in the Guatemalan highlands called Todos Santos, Cuchumatanes, All Saint’s Day is celebrated in a unique way. Guatemalans flock from all over the county to Todos Santos wearing their matching traditional dress of red pants and white jackets with blue embroidery for boys and men and a black skirt with similar embroidery for women. Both men and women wear straw hats with blue sashes. They come to see the annual horse race held here on the main road beyond the fair and market that is set up on the main square for the occasion. During this horse race, a whistle is blown and the men take off down the short road that serves as a track. Then the men have to have a drink of beer or alcohol before starting their next lap. The winner of the race is the last person still on their horse. Though it’s a festival, most of the men in town begin drinking very early in the morning and it can get a little dangerous by late afternoon between the racers pushing each other off their respective horses and the drunken bystanders getting rowdy.
The festival itself is quite interesting to see and not attended by many tourists—in fact there is only one small hotel in Todos Santos so some backpackers try to get lucky by getting there earlier in the week and asking families who live in the town to rent them a room. Even if you manage to make a reservation in advance it is not uncommon for it to get “lost”—all it takes is for someone else to be there first and offer a few more dollars.
All Saint’s Day is celebrated in different ways throughout Guatemala but wherever you go to observe it is sure to be colorful and lively, even in the cemeteries!
Listen to our podcast interview with local tourism and heritage specialist, Elizabeth Bell, about the Día de los Santos celebrations.
