For this year's All Saint's Day (known as Day of the Dead in Mexico) I passed up the drunken horse races that I went to last year and instead went to a festival of giant kites near Antigua, where I lived during training. Note that these pictures are stolen from my friends because I forgot to bring my camera!
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| Every year on All Saint's Day, Guatemalans go to the cemetery to decorate the graves of loved ones. This cemetery was next to the kite festival. |
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| The cemetery |
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| The people in the kite festival town are mostly indigenous and so mostly wear "traje" (indigenous dress) like these girls. |
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| My friend and I in front of a kite - the bigger kites (20-50 feet wide) are just for decoration, but the smaller ones are flown later in the day. Supposedly the flying kites are believed to be a "vehicle for speaking with the souls of departed loved ones". |
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| All of the kites had intricate decorations, and the theme of this year seemed to have something to do with protecting "Mother Nature". This one says "water is worth more than gold". |
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| (Click on a picture to make it bigger) |
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| Like any proper Guatemalan celebration, the festival had lots of delicious street food! |
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| This is a typical "churrasco" (grilled food) that can be found pretty much anywhere in Guatemala. Just ignore the greenish-looking meat, I swear it's delicious! |
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