Grey skies, dark clothes, people whispering and sobbing while they are praying or cleaning the tomb of their loved ones. These are things I could have seen if I'd spent the day of the Dead in Belgium but this year, I spent it in Bolivian cemeteries.
Here death has a completely different meaning: the soul never dies and on November 2d, it comes back to earth to visit the living.
Basically, the souls are said to arrive at midday on November 1st and to stay 24 hours but practically, on November 2d, people settle for the whole day in cemeteries. Here, gloominess is replaced by cheerful festivities: indeed, if the souls only come back on that day, it has to be celebrated.
Although when arriving it looks like a big mess, everything has its meaning. In front of the tomb, the living lay a 'mesa' for the dead, where they put food and drinks (mainly what the dead used to like) but also t'anta wawa (bread babies), ladder shaped bread and sugar canes disposed in a pyramidal way - both are supposed to help the dead go back to the skies - young onions, which contains water for the dead to drink...
Here are a few pictures of this colorful day.
NB: according to me, people erroneously call November 2d 'Todos Santos' (All Saints) which normally is November 1st. It should be called 'día de los Difuntos' (day of the Dead).
Here death has a completely different meaning: the soul never dies and on November 2d, it comes back to earth to visit the living.
Basically, the souls are said to arrive at midday on November 1st and to stay 24 hours but practically, on November 2d, people settle for the whole day in cemeteries. Here, gloominess is replaced by cheerful festivities: indeed, if the souls only come back on that day, it has to be celebrated.
Although when arriving it looks like a big mess, everything has its meaning. In front of the tomb, the living lay a 'mesa' for the dead, where they put food and drinks (mainly what the dead used to like) but also t'anta wawa (bread babies), ladder shaped bread and sugar canes disposed in a pyramidal way - both are supposed to help the dead go back to the skies - young onions, which contains water for the dead to drink...
Here are a few pictures of this colorful day.
NB: according to me, people erroneously call November 2d 'Todos Santos' (All Saints) which normally is November 1st. It should be called 'día de los Difuntos' (day of the Dead).