Kite Festival in Santiago

On November 1, All Saints' Day (El Dia de Todos los Santos), we went to Santiago, Sacatepequez in Guatemala to celebrate relatives and loved ones passed before us in the Kite Festival.

At the Kite Festival, Guatemalans create giant kites (barriletes) to be flown, sending prayers and good wishes to their beloved in Heaven, and to ward off evil spirits. This is a communication with the Dead, and a way to celebrate the better life waiting for us all after death. The kites in Santiago are famously gigantic, intricate, and professionally done. It was definitely one of the most amazing cultural events we've had the pleasure of experiencing!

Yes, it is impossible for James to "blend in"

It is also impossible to pass up fresh blue corn tortillas! Mmmm!

Basically, they take the large kites up on top of an above-ground grave or the cemetery moselium, wait for a large gust of wind, and hope for the best. Some kites make it up several hundred feet, while others may barely make it off the ground before crashing down. When you were walking you had to be careful that a kite didn't come dive-bombing out of the sky or that you weren't stepping on the kite string being pulled by a small group of young men keeping the kites up!

We were very surprised to see a cemetery be so full of, well, life!

Everywhere people and families were laughing and busy decorating; graves were adorned happily with flowers, food and water, and relatives perched on them for a better view. It was such a festive and fun atmosphere that one couldn't be sad for very long, even with concerted effort!

The best way to experience this festival is with less verbiage and more footage! Enjoy this day in pictures, please!

Decorating Family Graves (and hanging out on them)







More convenient than a park bench

Very quaint graves!

Making the Kites

Kites are made of thin tissue/gift paper
They have bamboo backbones
They are bound together with rope, tape, and newspaper

These are some of the smaller kites



It seemed like the men were in charge of making and flying the kites
The women were in charge of grave decoration and adoration

This is one of the GIANT kites (2 stories tall, at least!)
We heard mixed reviews as to whether or not they actually try to fly these
By the end of the day there are five giant kites standing! WOW!


Three of the Five giant kites up already

Flying the Kites


At one point we counted 12+ kites going
If you can imagine how huge these kites were,
you can also tell how high they are by how small they appear in the sky

They were all so beautiful and well designed


Waiting for the wind...




Giant kites get stuck in trees, too!


It's harder than it looks to keep them in the air!

Winners of a local beauty pageant

We enjoyed some crazy corn (elote loco) at the end of the day