- [David Yetman] Day of the Dead is observed throughout Middle America, and each region celebrates in its own fashion.

One town in Guatemala has a decidedly different take.

(foreign language) - [David Yetman] A festival of kites.

(acoustic music) - [Voiceover] Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was provided by Agnese Haury.

Funding for the "In the Americas with David Yetman" was also provided by the Guilford Fund.

(music playing with nature sounds) - [David Yetman] Antigua is one of Guatemala's most popular attractions for foreigners.

What most of them don't realize is that only a half hour away is one of the world's most strangest and most beautiful fiestas, a festival of kites.

(foreign language) - [David Yetman] The town of Santiago Sacatepéquez sits roughly midway between Antigua and Guatemala City.

The fiesta takes place in the cemetery on November 2nd each year.

We arrive a few days before to watch the preparations.

Erections of the huge tree trunks called bases, the construction of the bamboo skeletons of the great kites, the fabrication of the kites themselves from butcher paper and crepe paper, and finally, the raising of the great kites and the flying of the lesser ones.

All of these activities are blessed in an ancient ceremony.

(foreign language) - [David Yetman] I am fortunate to have my friend, Enselmo Ishculto to guide me through the activities.

He is a native son and is Kak'chiquel Maya as well.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] We do a Mayan ceremony because we ask that tomorrow there be no accidents.

It's part of the spiritual days and the representatives of the kites.

The queens of the kite are present.

- [David Yetman] What we have here is a very deep tradition of the beginning of the ceremony, they elect a queen, a young woman, and two of her assistants.

The fire is an offering, the incense is an offering to cleanse the whole area, to make it.

And each of the people standing around who have head wraps on are authorities who can preside over the ceremony.

There are very few people here, and that's because it has fallen out of favor, but some of the traditional people such as my friend Enselmo are trying to bring it back, to resuscitate the tradition, because the kite festival really is not a kite festival without the beginnings, the official opening, as Mayas did it for hundreds or perhaps, thousands of years.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] They are the spiritual guides.

We call them the Aki.

- [David Yetman] Not only do they have the kite ceremony, which is very visual, but as so many other places for the Day of the Dead, people come to clean up the graves, to paint them, to straighten everything up of their ancestors.

A very important day in commemoration of the agricultural cycle especially, which usually ends at this time of year.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] An important community interaction like the Day of the Dead is not only celebrated in the Gregorian calendar, but also in the Mayan calendar, in the agricultural calendar.

They are decorating them to show their love for their dear ones.

- [David Yetman] The cemetery appears to be divided into two sectors, one with traditional monuments and gravestones, the other with bare ground and only low-lying grave markers.

This is where they will erect the giant kites.

So this is a whole neighborhood getting together to raise this tree with branches stripped off it that will provide the base for fabricating the huge kite that has to have something to hold it up.

(giggles) - [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] What they will do is to make the base strong so that it won't fall.

- [David Yetman] This is the trunk, the tree, that has been put in the ground.

The base of it will reach as much as 15 feet below.

They want this to be firmly planted.

As I shake it, it moves almost nothing.

And it needs to be that strong because it's gonna have that enormous kite up against it with all the wind force, and if it's not strong, it will just fall over.

Through over the decades they've discovered they better put that trunk in very deep in the ground and tamp it down.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] It has been going on for approximately 120 years.

- [David Yetman] The Maya people of this area lived in an area much higher where it was cold, too cold for them really to survive.

So, although they had lived there a while, they moved here where the climate was much better, where they could raise their crops and people wouldn't suffer from the cold.

But they left behind their buried ancestors, and they did not do well at first until they figured out they needed to have the blessing of their ancestors, the way that the ancient Mayas taught them.

The kites, they imagined, were a way of notifying and thanking their ancestors far away, who could see with their spiritual souls down there, and see those kites.

And that way they knew that people were respecting and thanking them for their ancestry, for what they had done, for the protection they gave to the community.

And the kites kept getting bigger and bigger each year and now they're these gigantic things that fill the whole sky.

The festival has deep and ancient roots, living symbols that we find in a sacred place a few miles away.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] People who still practice Mayan spirituality come to celebrate the Mayan ceremony.

- [David Yetman] So there are two of them in the region.

One here, and one in the cemetery where the kite ceremony takes place.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] The Mayan culture, which is the Mayan spirituality, has certain characteristics of the Catholic Church.

- [David Yetman] It's a mixture of ancient, pre-Columbian Maya religion and the Catholic religion.

And many of the Catholic priests who came here understood that if they were really going to be able to convert the Indians, they had to accept some of the Indian beliefs.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] So this in the center, represents the sun and the moon, the grandchildren of this grandmother, who is the grandmother of all the Mayas.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] So in the Maya religion there are 20, what they call Nawales.

It's a kind of energy.

There are 20 of them.

There are four principal sources of energy, (foreign language) - [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] The deer (foreign language) - [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] The moon and the wind.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] And this is knowledge.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] These are the roads, the paths we take in life.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] Our language is spoken by more than half a million speakers, some of which are 100% monolingual.

And currently, as it happens with many Mayan languages in Guatemala, the newer generations are losing it.

Some have it as a second language and some are Spanish monolinguals with Kak'chiquel monolingual parents.

So there is also an identity conflict there.

In our family, we instill the language in the little ones because in the end, the changes start within the family.

- [David Yetman] The Kak'chiquel people who live here have traditionally been farmers and the women at home, weavers.

That's how they made their living.

As they move out into the countryside, that tradition stays.

Every family likes to have its agricultural feet in the soil, not all for themselves, to trade in the market as part of that traditional combination of agriculture and home weaving.

It's the Kak'chiquel way.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] For the majority of the Mayan region, death is not a bad thing.

Death is one more stage in life.

My mother taught my when I was small, that during this time of the year, we shouldn't make a lot of noise.

And we have to behave better because our grandparents, who already died, come to visit and they can see us.

The dead never leave.

That is why in the past, people would go to the cemetery, have a wake all night long.

There was food, there were drinks, because it is a fiesta.

For us, death is not bad.

- [Feliciana Puac] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] These huge kites were not like the ones they built before.

They used to be only about three meters tall.

It was more beautiful because all the kites would fly.

The entire sky was filled up with kites, but not anymore.

Now they build the kites in the cemetery.

- [David Yetman] Leading up to the festival, all the towns' facilities are taken over by kite builders.

Every available large covered space is occupied by young artists.

These young men have been working on it for two months in their homes and now they have to have a place big enough to unfold the whole thing.

And they have to practice folding and unfolding it.

This one actually has a name.

It's called the Santiago Inspiration.

- [Man] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] The bulk of these young people have day jobs working in the fields and they work all day, very hard work.

They have to walk to work and walk home, and then they are so dedicated to this, they spend all the evening, the late hours, working on this immense design.

- [Man] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] Most of the groups that build the big kites are male, but this is a woman's group, an all-woman's group.

- [Woman] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] And when it is all done, they will fold it.

And then they will carry it to the cemetery.

And then they will mount it on a bamboo skeleton and attach it to one of the bases, one of those huge tree trunks.

In the middle of town is a store owned by the godmother of the kites, the woman who knows more about it than anything, and who now has a land office business selling various sizes of the barriletes.

- [Woman] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] (foreign language) - [Woman] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] (foreign language) - [Woman] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] Actually, the smallest ones right here, are probably no more than a foot.

And the very biggest ones that they sell here are maybe four feet, maybe a little more.

And of course, in the major fiesta there will be some that are 60 feet in diameter.

The place is about ready to explode.

Tomorrow, we will hardly be able to walk here because they're expecting 75,000 people to come to the town.

Now, the night before the great festival begins.

People are assembling the huge skeletons, as they call them, but tonight is the night when everything has to get ready.

The graves are being decorated with flowers, mostly the Marigolds.

People are getting excited, they're cleaning off their ancestors' graves.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] It's almost pitch black here in Sacatepequez, and unlike other places in Mexico and Guatemala, they don't illuminate the cemetery with candles.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] We have here my father's tomb.

We always come during this time of the year to decorate the tomb.

There are some other family members over there, too.

Over there, we can see my grandmother's tomb, my grandfather's tomb.

Here we are family.

From a young age, this is taught to children, to come to visit, not to be scared of the tombs, because here we view things differently.

- [Angel Ina Sac Baja] (foreign language) - [David Yetman] Morning of the Day of the Dead arrives, and months of work are about to be displayed.

Forty-eight hours ago, we saw this kite laid out on a gymnasium floor being put together.

Now all the young men have mounted it onto its frame, they call it the skeleton.

They've got it on pulleys and they're about to lift it up.

This is the central kite for the great festival.

It will stay here.

This one will not fly.

Raising this, the way they're trying to do it is sort of like trying to lift a spider web, except a very heavy spider web.

And it flops back down.

So it's gonna take a few tries to get it.

And each time, a little piece of it breaks, so it's a constant repair job.

Not all of them get up.

This is fairly early in the morning and already you can buy any kind of food you want.

You can buy almost any goods that you want along the way.

Thousands of people are arriving.

You can have any kind of meat you want.

You can have part of an entire pig that's on a spit.

You can get this traditional drink called Atol, which is made out of corn.

Or you can get a hamburger, you can get a pizza.

It's both a carnival and a great and ancient celebration combined with it, too.

There is blaring rock music everywhere and in tiny little places, you see these traditions come through.

Must be 500 grills here making tortillas.

They're just heating them, they're roasting tomatoes.

They've got some pork on there.

They have traditional refried beans made out of black beans there.

And the smells are mouth-watering.

(festive traditional music) - [David Yetman] Somehow, overnight, families appeared and spread these thousands of petals and parts of the Marigolds, which they call flor del muerto, the flower of the dead.

- [Woman] (foreign language) - [Younger Woman] (foreign language) - [Man] (foreign language) - [Woman] (foreign language) - [Man] (foreign language) - [Woman] (foreign language) - [Young Boy] (foreign language) - [Man] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] If I die in Santiago, I want to be buried in Santiago, because then every first of November, I will spend time with people.

Death is never a bad thing in the Mayan culture.

Death is another stage of life, in which we become spirits and begin to spend time with all of our people.

For example, today there's a feast because there is joy, there are people because they're our neighbors that visit us, and that's good for us.

- [David Yetman] The size of that, probably 60 feet in diameter, and the fragility of it, it could easily break and tear, means it's always iffy.

The crowd really appreciates all the work that went into it, how tough it can be to get it up.

There's huge applause as it goes up, with very good reason.

So far, three of the dozen or so of the gigantic kites have made it upright.

There, as it goes up, the crowd is immensely appreciative.

It's gone, there about half way.

The crowd still holds its breath but I think it's gonna make it, oh my.

It's a community achievement to see that going up there, but they have sponsors, as well, and the sponsors are holding their breath 'cause they donated money to the groups to be able to make the kites.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] They are extremely heavy.

That is why young people form groups and the groups help each other out.

For example, to lift just one of the poles, we need two or three people.

- [David Yetman] These huge kites are assembled by different groups.

And each of them has a relationship to a particular part of the community.

And the flags atop, the patterns on the flags, the one on the right and the one next to center, both represent a traditional design from here in Sacatepequez.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] These kites are like a part of us.

When we are children, they teach us how to make these kites.

We see our parents making kites.

And little by little, we grow up and we start getting together with friends.

Sometimes they get frustrated because they are not able to lift the kites or are not able to exhibit them how they want, that is why there is an entire preparation.

There are techniques that we have learnt from the past so we know how to place the kites so they don't break.

But in this case, we saw that one of the kites broke.

The guys are going to bring it down and they are going to try to repair it so they can show it again.

- [Enselmo Ishculto] (foreign language) - [Interpreter] Each of the kites has a message.

For example, there we see one that talks about child abuse.

Another one talks about patron saint festivals, our traditions, others are about nature.

What we want is for people to see that it is a form in which we, young people, express ourselves, but we do it in a different way.

In this case, it's through the giant kites.

These are the ones that are displayed.

Soon we will see how they start to fly the smaller kites that are only three or four meters long.

This is different, it is more like a sport.

- [David Yetman] It's about noon and the big kites are already up or broken.

And now the real kites have come out, and that's a sight to see.

All of the giant kites that are gonna go up are up.

Some of them made it part way and then collapsed.

Some of them barely made it off the ground.

It's all part of that great kite fiesta of Santiago Sacatepequez.

Join us next time in the Americas with me, David Yetman.

In the United States, about once every 50 years, we have a volcanic eruption.

And every 20 years or so, a damaging earthquake.

In Guatemala, people live and die in the shadow of volcanoes.

Eruptions are constantly occurring, and earthquakes are always a threat.

Always.

We've looked at the gravestones with the names on them, we can see these are not Spanish type names.

These are very Indian.

This one is Florencio Secajau Sactic.

That's not Spanish, that's indigenous.

- [Voiceover] Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was provided by Agnese Haury.

Funding for "In the Americas with David Yetman" was also provided by The Guilford Fund.

Copies of this and other episodes of "In the Americas with David Yetman" are available from the Southwest Center.

To order, call 1-800-937-8632.

Please mention the episode number and program title.

Please be sure to visit us at intheamericas.com or intheamericas.org.