ALL SAINTS DAY
KITE FESTIVAL
IN GUATEMALA
G'day folks,
On November 1st of every year the people of both Santiago
Sacatepéquez, and Sumpango, Guatemala, put together giant kites to fly during
the Day of the Dead during the All Saints Day Kite Festival.
The vibrantly
colored designs on the kites, made of cloth and paper with bamboo frames,
depict religious or folkloric themes and they are flown in the nearby
Sacatepéquez cemetery to honor the dead. The locals in this small municipality
dress up in colorful clothing and head to the cemetery to spend the day
cleaning up the graves and decorating them with flowers while they have picnics
right next to their departed family members.
Traditionally,
the building of the kites takes 40 days, the first day marked by the village’s
unmarried men heading out to the coast at 4:00 am to laboriously collect bamboo
for the kite frames. Every part of the kite is made using nature’s bounty; the
glue is a mixture of yucca flower, lemon peel, and water, ropes are made of the
maguey plant (the plant that also brings us tequila), and the tails are made
from woven cloth.
The practice of flying colorful kites during the Day of the
Dead celebrations has been around for 3,000 years and is recognized by various
religious sects, and locals believe it is a tool for communicating with the
beyond.
Clancy's comment: What a great community project, eh? Kids would love it.
I'm ...
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