Day of the Dead

What a gloomy title for what was once really a delightful holiday - honoring the saints of old. It's been so interesting being back in a Catholic country but one with really different traditions than I grew up with. The people here are so much more into their traditions for traditions' sake. Whereas in Austria on any given Sunday you might be lucky to find 20 attendees in an enormous church meant to seat 400, here the churches are actually packed. Granted I'm attending an evangelical church, but they have a room of 300 chairs, 5 services each weekend, and still people are standing in the aisles. On Sundays, here, you go to church.

Back to the Day of the Dead. In Austria, it was All Souls and All Saints Day, and people flocked to the cemeteries to light candles and lay flowers on the graves of their loved ones. Papa and I used to love walking among the eerily lit tombstones partly because it was a beautiful sight and partly because it reminded us to pray for the spiritual darkness of the land. God isn't dead. He's alive, and we can pray directly to him!

I have yet to discover exactly how they celebrate here, but so far, I know they drink Colada Morada and eat Guaguas (pronounced "wah-wahs"). Colada Morada is a berry drink made of blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, and some other unfamiliar ones. It's terrific! The guaguas are basically little bread loaves in the shape of peolple, usually with some kind of filling, and frosting decoration on top. Here was HCJB's little celebration this morning. We had dancers, a music group, and free Colada Moradas and Guaguas. They even had a giant guagua on the wall. I'm also trying to include a video - we'll see if it works.