Velaciones

Velaciones, is All Saint's Day, the day after Halloween. It's cause for celebration in many Latin American nations, maybe all of them, and Peru is no exception. In Mexico it's called Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead but here it's called velaciones, which means something like "candle-ings." It's my new favorite Peruvian tradition. I went with my friend Dora and her family to the cemetery in Sechura where her loved ones are buried. Everyone was there, literally the entire town went to Sechura. Rinconada must have been a ghost town save for the few dad's who stayed behind to guard the livestock from rustlers. When we arrived at the cement burial vault that houses the various niches where families bury their loved ones I thought for the 100th time how much the structure looks like a giant honeycomb, each cement niche houses a casket. We built a tent of bed sheets, rice sacks, and algaroba wood sticks around it and ourselves to protect us from the cold wind off the Pacific. The cemetery was transformed into a field of glowing tents. Inside each tent entire families gathered on woven reed mats called petates with blankets, coffee, and sandwiches. Everyone from 2 week old infants to 85 year old grandmothers huddled around the burials, put half a dozen or so candles in each niche, and designated the kids' to change them before they burned out to keep constant light for those who had passed on. Then the stories stared. I head about Crazy Tío Santos who apparently had the best racy jokes ever and while everyone was rolling on the ground remembering I had to laugh trying to imagine what that joke about the donkey cart could possibly mean and why it was funny. They talked about their grandmother and explained all of the ingredients in her best dishes to me. It seems like it would be morbid to camp in a cemetery and talk about dead folks all night but it was a fabulous party. Vendors came a set up outside the cemetery and all the young people were wandering between the booths. There was even a dance in the high school across the street. We just hung out and had a blast. I wish that we did Velaciones in the US. I think that I'm going to try to start the tradition when I go back. I bet my grandma would be into it and in my family everyone follows her orders.



During the daytime celebration of Velaciones children take little plastic bags from house to house and get angleitos or sweets from families that have lost a child in childbirth, infancy, or early childhood. Most families here have suffered that loss so the kids come back with quite a stash of sweets and take them to the cemetery with them at night.


My dad sent me these funny blinking jack-o-lantern earrings for Halloween and they were a big hit with the kids.