Day of the Dead table

Photo from Ryan Greenberg.

Día de Los Muertos

So Halloween came and passed, and since I am in Bolivia, no one really made a big deal about it. I think that in the whole month of October I saw maybe one store that had Halloween decorations. It was weird not to have a Halloween party, no Halloween candy, any trick-or-treaters, or a scary movie marathon. But I was able to participate in several Día de Los Muertos celebrations.

Día de Los Muertos (as described to me…and will probably vary from person to person, especially between Ryan, Caitlin, Emily and me) is as Sra. Lilian (mi madre boliviana) says “is the one day that GOD allows the departed souls to go back down to the earth, and visit their families.”

This celebration begins on November 1 with the preparation of “la mesa.” La mesa has five main components to it. The first component is pictures of the family’s relatives who have past away. These pictures could be of relatives who have past away recently or those who past away several years ago. The significance of the pictures is that these are the individuals or souls that will come to visit the family. The second component is food and drinks. Seeing as how this is the only day of the year that the souls can come visit, it is a tradition to prepare the favorite foods/drinks for the visiting souls. Glasses of water can also be found on the table, so the souls can have a drink after their long voyage back to their families. The third component is candles. The candles are lit exactly at noon on November 1, to welcome the souls to the house/mesa. The fourth component is a cross. The fifth component is a ladder. The ladder plays a huge significance in helping the souls get back to the clouds. Let me explain.

After a full day (from noon of Nov.1 to noon of Nov. 2) the souls must go back to where they came from. So the souls climb the ladder and make their way to the clouds. While in the clouds they help produce rain. Then when it finally rains, the souls (from what I gather) hold on to the raindrops and enter the ground.

Altogether this was an awesome experience. Families have huge “parties” and invite friends and family to join in the celebration of the dead. I found it truly amazing how people view death, not as an ending to life, but as the beginning of a new one. One interesting thing is the traditional drink Cicha. Cicha is basically an alcoholic drink made from some type of alcohol and corn. Whenever, you serve yourself a drink on Día de Los Muertos, you should always pour the first few drops on the ground in respect for your family members who have past away.

This is just a brief segment of the tradition (even though I really didn’t tell you what happened. But send me questions and I will answer them ASAP). I am sure that Ryan, Emily, and Caitlin will have more to tell. So, don’t forget to check out their blogs too. (They paid me to say that.)