samaranana del jaqui

Upon that night, when fairies light
On Cassilis Downans dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the route is ta'en,
Beneath the moon's pale beams;
There, up the cove, to stray and rove,
Among the rocks and streams
To sport that night...

[hallowe'en, robert burns]


The migration of two million Celts during the Irish Potato Famine also transmitted the pagan ritual of Samhain to North America.  Originally demarcating the end of the harvest season, the celebration intended to placate the deceased spirits that would return on the 31st of October.  The ancient ritual involved lighting of bonfires, burning bones of slaughtered livestock, and adorning masks.  A skeleton.carved vegetable (usually a turnip or rutabaga) would sit on the windowsill, candlelit, to welcome the deceased and ward off superstitions.  Protection away from the home consisted of costumes as otherworldly creatures to blend in with the roaming spirits.  Children, sprinkled with salt, would venture about, collecting fruit, nuts, and sweets from neighbors for the festival.  These traditions have been adapted and commercialized in the United States to include trick.or.treating, elaborate decorations, costumes, and parties.

The Catholic faith follows the pagan celebration with two religious holidays: All Saints Day and Day of All Souls (Dia de Todos Santos and Dia de Los Santos Difuntos).  Bolivia's festival includes the mixing of indigenous and religious beliefs, with the overlapping of Todos Santos and Jullupacha (rain season).  The feminine cycle of the Aymara calendar coincides with the returning rains and the reflowering of the earth.  The souls also return to reaffirm life and receive food and celebration.  Offerings of bread, pastries, flowers, sugar cane, and chicha are placed on tables as families stand vigil, eating, drinking, chewing coca, and praying.  Bread figurines symbolize the resources in the afterlife including t’antawawas (physical representations of the spirits), biscochuelos, escaleras (stairs), aguilas (eagles), and ajayus (satchels).  Cruces (crosses), coronas (crowns), and pillus embellish tables of prestige.  Guests visit the altars with clean hands, partaking in the deceased’s favorite traditional dishes and saying “alma purakaparux sirptasinani” (we eat in the stomach of the ajayu).  The cultural regard of death, samaranana del jaqui, as a natural phenomenon signifying “rest” allocates a joyous gathering in the Andean world.