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The Giant Kites of Guatamala

The giant kites on display

Crowds gather near a graveyard to see brightly colored giant-sized kites. In the graveyard, orange and yellow flower petals cover the earth as if the previous night’s rain had magically fallen as blossoms. It might be an unlikely sight in a cemetery, but this is el Dia de Todos los Santos, All Saints’ Day, a holiday that celebrates family and remembers departed loved ones. Every November 1 the tiny town of Santiago Sacatepequez (also called Sampango), near Guatemala’s capital city, follows a tradition over 100 years old while tourists come from far and near to sit atop the graves in the cemetery and watch. Some kites are over 36 meters (118 feet) in diameter, and teams of as many as a dozen men work to get them airborne. And when they are successful it is truly a sight to behold.

Known as “barilletas gigantes” in Spanish, the giant kites of Santiago Sacatepéquez are masterpieces that take great skill and patience to complete. Months before the Kite Festival, teams of people begin work on the colorful kites that will bring them great honor and the respect of their peers, on the big day. A giant kite is made of cloth and paper tied to a bamboo frame, and features a colorful design, usually with a religious or folkloric theme. In recent years, designs have been hinting at the ever-growing corruption of the Guatemala government.

The festival starts at the cemetary

On the day of the festival, people take their homemade kites to the nearby Sacatepéquez cemetery, to honor the departed. The 3,000-year-old tradition of flying colorful kites on the Day of the Dead derived from various religious practices, including Christianity, and locals believe it’s a way to communicate with the dead. They dress up in colorful clothes, clean-up the graves of their loved ones, cover them with colorful flower petals and even have picnics right there in the cemetery. It’s a happy celebration where people have fun and honor those who are no longer with them.

They take the kites to the festival site, nearby

The giant kites are brought to the cemetery in the morning, but they don’t take to the skies until dusk, when people have finished tending to the graves and enjoyed a good meal. You will see locals flying their own small kites, but the truly impressive ones, with diameters ranging between 24 and 36 meters ( 78 feet to 118 feet ) only go up at dusk.

The Kite Festival of Santiago Sacatepéquez is about honoring the dead and communicating with them, but locals also compete to see who has the most beautiful kite and which of them flies the most. There are prizes for best design, but for the winners, the cheers and admiration of the crowd are rewarding enough.

(Left) Some kites are left on the graves of loved ones, passed on.
(Right) Young Mayan girls bring their kites to the cemetary.

Some of the smaller kites, after being flown, are placed on the graves of the maker's loved ones. Even the young make small kites, barely a foot across, to leave as a communication with their ancestors. Shown above, two young Mayan girls have made their own kites to fly and leave at the graves of their ancestors.

Setting the kites up for display is a teamwork job.

Setting the largest kites up for display is definitely a team-work job. Although they are made of tissue paper and bamboo, and although they are light enough to fly, their sheer size (and the fact that they catch the wind while being set up) make them bulky and difficult to handle.

And guess what!! They fly.

It’s a glorious spectacle seeing groups of locals struggling to get their masterpieces airborne, but it’s only when they succeed, and the colorful kites head for the great blue sky that the show is complete. The strong autumn winds shred through the paper easily, but the brief moments of seeing such a beautiful thing fly is totally worth it.

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To learn more about el Dia de Todos los Santos and the giant kites of Santiago Sacatepequez, take a look at the following web sites:

Their official web site
The Mad Traveler Online (lots of good information)
Travels in Paradise web site (good photographs)