The Kites of Heaven, Guatemalan style

November 1, 8:59 AMCentral American Travel ExaminerMichael Sherer

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It was a rainy night in Antigua and the crowds were thin: the costumes weren’t meant for rain and Batman’s cape wasn’t waterproof.

The events of the last week,Maximon/Saint Simon’s Birthday, combined with a touch of Halloween, are coming to the end of the last two days of celebration: today is All Saint’s Day and tomorrow?  The Day of the Dead, as celebrated throughout Central America. Today is a mixture of Catholicism and Mayan belief systems. This is a day for family members to go to the cemetery, pack a picnic lunch and honor their departed ancestors with candles, incense, flowers and prayers.
 

In a nearby villages of Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepequez(sounds like sack-a-potatoes), the kites will be up early: the young men of the village have been preparing for this for the last forty days. The families with gather at the cemetery at 4:am, with the ritual cleaning, painting and decorating of the graves. The kites, made out of all-natural ingredients, will begin to loft when the winds allow them to do so. The kites, some as large as thirty feet across, are meant to make contact with the spirits of the departed and show them where to come down and visit. I’ll know more later: the bus leaves at ten, film at eleven.  I've been warned about pickpockets: "Are you talkin' to me?" Travis Bickel/Taxi Driver. I'm not taking anything, including my mind.