Halloween/Feria/Dia de los muertos

This past weekend, a bunch of volunteers rented a house in the mountains of Huehuetenango, in a town seemingly hundreds of miles away from (and above) any semblance of “civilization”, and also seemingly many miles away from where any foreigner had ever set foot. Nevertheless, the 20 of us arrived in Todos Santos and were met with several other PC volunteers, as well as Australians, Brits, Israelis, and many other unidentified definitely-not-Guatemalan travelers. Why? Because Todos Santos was in the midst of celebrating its annual “feria” – a 3-4 day celebration/fair that most medium-large sized towns in Latin America put on every year to commemorate the anniversary of the town’s foundation. This feria happened to coincide with “El día de los muertos” (“Day of the Dead”), which isn’t really a big deal in most of Guatemala (I think it’s more of a Mexican holiday?) but which is celebrated in this town – not sure if the name of the town (“Todos Santos” – “All Saints”) has anything to do with that or not.

A tradition specific to Todos Santos is an annual drunken horse race. Yep - drunken. Horse race. It seemed to be a rule that any male in Todos Santos over the age of 18 had to be drunk beyond the ability to speak for the entirety of the feria, and the men competing in the traditional race were no exception. To experience the race was at once entertaining and terrifying – men were dressed up in the most colorful traditional garb, with feathers and flowers flying everywhere, racing horses back and forth on a narrow wooden-fence-lined “track”. All were drunk beyond belief, and one man was literally SLEEPING on his horse, eliciting several gasps from the crowd whenever he appeared to be falling off. Apparently, the legend behind the race goes something like this: When horses first arrived in Todos Santos, the men there were told that horses were so dangerous that riding one would mean instant death. Therefore, everyone was afraid of horses for years, until one man got so drunk that he forgot his fears and decided to ride one of these dangerous creatures. He didn’t die, and so from that day people decided that maybe horses weren’t so bad after all, but maybe you should get a little (or a lot) drunk before you get on one, just in case. (How the drunkness decreases your chance of death I really couldn’t tell you.)

 

Another reason why PACAs (used clothes stores) are so great - $3 last-minute halloween costumes

Every feria has a collection of terrifying, decades-old fair rides,
which are amazingly fun to ride

Even though “dia de los muertos” isn’t really a big deal here, most towns still celebrate a little by bringing flowers to loved ones’ graves, and by flying kites. The flying kites thing more has to do with the fact that it is windier now than it used to be, and less with any connection to the dead, but kites are still associated with the holiday and can be seen flying around in the distance in most parts of the country.

The cemetery in Champollap

An abandoned kite