Santiago Sacatepéquez

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All Saints Day and an incredible hangover after last night´s Halloween celebration...We thought it might be a great idea to go to Santiago and see the festival of All Saints Day.
Two chickenbus rides later we found ourselves in the middle of a celebration on a graveyard. Us lutherans are used to that graveyards are quiet and dark and a little sad places, so boy were we surprised to different relationship the guatemalans have with their ancestors!
A guatemalan man we met, told us that the indigenous population communicate with their ancestors through flying bright coloured kites on All Saints Day. The graves were painted in different colors and there were children running and laughing everywhere and it was truly a happy occasion. Families had picnics on the graves (which I personally wanted to see after learning about that in Spanish class years back!) while they were watching the kites, of all sizes and colours, in the sky.
We really enjoyed another really different day!

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