Todos Santos

For people in the community this is the biggest holiday of the year, and they plan and look forward to it much in the same way I do Christmas.  Although Todos Santos is essentially a holiday about death, the mood surrounding it is neither sad nor creepy, but quite festive.  The holiday (which lasts for several days from the end of October to the beginning of November) involves the decoration of an altar set up in a prominent spot of the home. Altars are dedicated to family members who have died and are decorated with leaves, flowers, fruit, cut-out paper, candles, candy skulls and photographs.  The dead person's favorite foods and drinks are also placed on the altar and often include tamales, bread, chocolate, beer and Coca-Cola.  Incense is burned and the home is filled with a special holiday scent.  Todos Santos is a time where families come together (often returning home from afar) to remember their dead relatives and spend several days feasting and communing with them.  Here are a couple of altars:

 

In the days leading up to Todos Santos, people sell leaves, fruits and flowers to each other.  One of the leaves that is particularly in demand (and locally-grown) at this time of year is the palmilla (a dark green palm leaf), but other locally-grown items are: banana leaves and corn husks (for making tamales), oranges (with stems and leaves) and banana bunches (for decorating the altars).  The red and orange cempasuchil flowers are not locally produced, and are brought in by outside vendors.  Stands selling these products pop-up all over the community:

This year, due to Hurricane Katia in September, most of the banana leaves in the community were torn in shreds.  Therefore, the people who had a few intact leaves to sell made good money.  The banana leaves need to be whole in order to properly wrap tamales.  

People who had palmilla to sell also did well.  They cut and sell the leaves by the dozen.  Often families will buy several dozen to decorate their altars.  When I asked someone if there were any other uses for palmilla (other than Todos Santos altars) I was told that these leaves are also used to produce dollars. This is the second time that I have been told that a leaf produced in the community is used in the production of dollars. The other is corn husks (see my earlier blog post on the corn husk business), but in both cases I am not sure of the veracity of this claim.