This past weekend was the best weekend since I have been here. On Friday we celebrated Halloween with a drawing contest, a short story contest and a costume contest. Later, all the volunteers designed a haunted walk through the area of the house where we store our farm equipment. For more than an hour the majority of the kids came through our haunted walk, while year-of-service kids and we scared them.
The next morning we celebrated All Saints Day. On this day we traditionally celebrate the birthdays of all the kids. We started waking the kids up at 5:00 a.m. with the traditional birthday song, Las Mananitas. We started with the youngest kids and moved into the older sections. It was really sweet to watch the younger kids waking up their older brothers and sisters. When we finally had woken up all the kids, we enjoyed a breakfast of cake and hot chocolate. For the rest of the day the kids didn’t have to do chores and had free time.
That evening we celebrated Mass for Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead is a traditional Mexican Holiday celebrated the 1st and 2nd of November to honor the dead. According to tradition on this day the souls of the dead can visit the living and families construct altars to honor their family members. The altars are filled with flowers, religious symbols, pan de muerto (a sweet bread), sugar skulls and the favorite food of the deceased. It is also a way to make fun of death. It is a Christian symbol that we will overcome death through God.
During the Mass we prayed for the dead by name. All of the children wrote the names of their family members in a book of the dead and Father Phil read each name. The church was silent. After Mass Father Phil shared the altar he had build with the kids. The altar was full of candy. We then enjoyed pan de muerto and hot chocolate for dinner.
The next day each section spent the whole day building their own altar for the altar contest. I will post pictures soon. It was amazing!
Peace,
Laura
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