All Souls Day

All Saints Day (Nov 1) and All Souls Day (Nov 2) are holy days in the Catholic Church. The celebrations of these feast days were low key where I grew up, a mass attended by few and a possible visit to a graveyard if it were a weekend. In the US people are aware of "The Day of the Dead" celebrated by our Mexican neighbors to the South and by a large population of Mexican Americans in the US.



Bolivians have a national Holiday for All Souls Day and many workers have the day off to be able to go to the cemetery to pray, bring flowers and honor family and friends that have gone on before them. If someone has died that year or it is an anniversary year (1, 5, 10 years or so on) the family may bring favorite foods or drinks to honor the person, having a picnic or enough to share with other people.



Special small cakes called masitas and special Andean breads called T'ant'a Wawas (if the have shape or form) are also baked in large quantities. Popular shapes are people (especially of the deceased), llamas, snakes or other animals, sun, moon, and a ladder (as in stairway to heaven, popular before Led Zeppelin)



Children go about in groups offering to pray for the deceased (see above photo), knowing they will be offered, masitas, fruit or candies. The size and item depends on their ability to pray, getting a T'ant'a Wawa is a great prize. Remind anyone or Trick or Treat with a religious twist? This year a group of kids I knew collected more then they could carry home. My cultural/personal bias made me feel it was a bit excessive, then my friend Olga said they didn't buy bread for 4 months last year. The masitas became hard like cookies and they would dip them in their morning tea. Not buying daily bread represents a great savings to a poor family. A poor family of six could spend up to 5-10% of daily income on bread.



(Above) Most people are buried here in the crypts for 5-7 years, and then the remains are moved to make room for others. They can then be cremated, buried or moved to other locations. If you are poor, you cannot afford a crypt and can be buried directly in the ground.

You can also hire a roving band to play a song or two for your dearly departed. Simon & Garfunkel's tune of the Sounds of Silence has been put to a version of the Our Father prayer. This was the most requested tune and at one time I could hear it played from 3 different directions simultaneously.



You can also pay for prayers from a professional prayer person, who are present at cemeteries any day of the year for prayers. My friend Olga's father is one of those professionals. Blind since before all of his children were born, he probably makes close to 1/2 of his annual income his day. Many people who work praying in cemeteries are blind.




We sat with her dad for a while during All Souls Day, and it was great to see him in action so to speak. Usually he is a quiet presence in the home (Olga's home) a very patient and undemanding person. I was with the family a month earlier when Micky (Olga's oldest) had a graduation ceremony, and his grandfather blessed him and prayed over him very publically, even ringing his tiny brass bell. Not a common site in the US or here!

At the cemetery he would ask questions of the person requesting the prayers and seemed so interested to learn about them. It is quite a ceremony, bells, chants in 2 or 3 different languages and a dash of Holy Water, which hits who or what ever is in it's path. A toddler wandering in front of him at that moment nearly choked on a mouthful of Holy Water. Once he mixed up the person to be prayed for with the person requesting the prayers. She let him know she wasn't dead yet, and there was laughter all around, and he restarted the prayers for the correct person.



(Above) Olga is standing near the altar set up for the forgotten souls, the ones no one will prayer for that day. Of course with an altar to remind us they get prayers, just not by name! There was a larger site set up in the gravesite area, past the crypts, with banners and green grass. The cemetery in Sacaba is one of the best green spaces very park like.