That is: Many Celebrations in November. And celebrate we did.
The month started out with the feast of All Saint on November 1. In Guatemala this is a huge celebration—though for once there are no processions. In the morning, families go to the cemetery to decorate the tombs with flowers and greenery. However, unlike the Mexican Dia de los Muertos, food is not taken to the cemetery for the departed to enjoy. At noon, the entire family comes together to eat fiembre—a traditional salad which is only served this one time a year.
While some of this celebration is based on Catholic belief, you can see the influence of the Mayan religions pervading this celebration. Julia, Leo’s oldest daughter, explained to me that the belief is that the spirits of the dead are allowed to return to earth this one day to see their loved ones. From what I understand, the “spirits” cannot have contact with the living, only observe from afar. This is the reason the family comes together for the celebration. . .to let the “spirits” know that the family continues to care for each other.
In the afternoon, then, kites are flown. I heard once that this is to take messages to the spirits hovering over the earth. Julia, however, maintains that this also comes from Mayan belief that both good an bad spirits have access to the earth during this time. The bad spirits, however, do not like the sound of crackling paper, so the noises the kites make scares them away. (Sounds a lot like Halloween, doesn’t it?)
While I didn’t participate in the cemetery trip or kite flying, I did enjoy the dinner with the family.
The 17th of November, we celebrated Leo’s 72nd birthday. His cancer has returned, and he’s in a lot of continual pain. It was a bittersweet celebration since we all recognize this may be the last birthday we get to celebrate with him. Once again, the whole family was together to honor their patriarch. I even got in a bit of dancing with him to the marimba.
It’s become a tradition for me to cook a typical Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family, so this was the third time in just a few weeks we were all together. Pablo (one of the sons) is doing his clinical practice in Jalapa, a town a number of hours away from here, so having him home three times in as many weeks made the day even more special. As usual, the students in Mari’s house were included also.
(Sorry, no pictures. I had lent my battery charger to Dick, and found myself with a dead camera battery. Waiting for him to send me pictures.)
Our final celebration was a second Thanksgiving dinner with the kids from Dick’s neighborhood on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The boys came in for church with Dick and then came over afterwards. We also celebrated Liz’s (a volunteer serving at the Hope Haven/Bethel Ministries camp) while we were together. The boys had never had Thanksgiving dinner before, and I think really enjoyed themselves. I think they would put up with it if I cooked this way every Sunday.
The end of the month I was honored to be included in the Hope Haven Ministries Christmas dinner. I have helped out at some of their distributions during this last year, and often am able to give patients communications systems to go along with their wheelchairs. This very special group of people have made me feel so much a part of their ministry and I was enjoyed spending this special evening just visiting with them.
Looking back on this month, I find much to be thankful for. A new house, family, friends and fellowship. God has blessed me in this past year beyond what I ever could have imagined, and I am grateful.
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