Todos Los Santos (All Saints Day)

Yesterday (October 31), today and tomorrow are three days with important significance. Yesterday was Reformation Sunday, the commemoration of the day, when in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg chapel questioning the practice of indulgences in the Catholic Church. That little list inspired a lot a debate and angry responses and was the beginning of the Reformation and the Protestant Church. I give thinks to God for Martin Luther and his insistence on sola fide, sola gratia, sola Scriptura - only faith, only grace and only the Scriptures. I am blessed to stand as a part of that tradition today.

Today is Todos Santos (All Saints Day) and tomorrow is the Day of the Dead here in Bolivia. All Saints Day was originally appointed to be a day to officially remember all saints, known and unknown, as worthy of imitation and honor. In Bolivia the Catholic Day has become associated with pagan custom and has resulted in two days of celebrating the dead, two days in which fear is a prominent part of the celebration.

In the Aymara world view man is made up of both the physical and the spiritual. The physical is, of course, the body (janchi) and the spiritual part has several components including the soul (alma), ánimo, ajayu, coraje (valor) and jañayu. A person can temporarily lose the ajayu, the ánimo and coraje (valor) without suffering continuing damage, but if he loses his alma (soul) that results in death. When death occurs, the family must cry and weep, not only because of the loss, but also because, if they do not show sufficient sorrow, the alma of the dead can punish them out of revenge.

At noon on Todos Santos the souls of the dead return together to their homes in order to eat, drink and take with them the things that they need for life in the other world. The dead have become the sullca dioses (minor gods) and are to be feared. If the dead have recently died, they are especially to be feared and so the family must prepare the right things to satisfy its desires. This includes all kinds of fruit and small representations of the dead made out of bread dough. Everything that the dead one liked is to be prepared and waiting for his soul. At noon, when the soul arrives, the family must begin to eat the food in the name of the dead. What cannot be eaten must be taken home with them. Also prayers are to be said for the benefit of the dead one. This feasting and praying goes on throughout the first day and into the night. Finally, at noon on the second day (The Day of the Dead, November 2) the souls leave the house and the family must move everything that is left to the cemetery where the ceremony and eating must take place at the grave of the dead, on top of it if possible. Nothing must be left uneaten. If a family needs help there are always those who will willingly help pray for the dead loved one in exchange for food and drink.

Flowers are an important item inpreparing the grave for the visit of the dead.

Cemeteries, largely ignored the rest of the year, get a good cleaning for Todos Santos

When a family succeeds in carrying out this responsibility for three consecutive years they are then able to preform the cacharpaya (liberation from obligations) and the soul of the dead will remain in his own place and may possibly become an achachila o awicha (types of gods) who will protect their descendants. This completion of their obligations toward the dead is happily celebrated with dancing to a certain special type of music. If they have not pleased the dead they will be punished and experience many bad happenings in the family but if they have pleased the dead they can be rewarded by receiving many possessions and much prosperity.

Todo Santos and the following Day of the Dead illustrate the importance of the Christian gospel's message that we do not need to live in fear but that our Lord Jesus has experienced death for us so that we, who have lived in the fear of death all of our lives, can be free of fear and live in love and gratitude for what our Lord has done.