Today is Dia de Todos Los Santos – All Saints Day.
Traditionally this is when everyone goes to the cemetery to remember loved ones. The headstones of the niches (the little ‘slots’
where coffins are placed) are cleaned and fresh flowers are placed, together with candles. It’s a family affair, very sociable. Afterwards many people go to a local restaurant to eat together.
There’s a phrase in Spanish, ‘El muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo’ when someone in interned. It basically means the
deceased in their niche and the living to the bar to celebrate their life’. I think the Spanish have a fascinating and really quite healthy relationship with the notion of death.
Although Halloween and All Saints is becoming more commercialised, in the small villages the traditional ways to celebrate
and recognise these dates are still evident.
After breakfast in a local bar and visit to the cementery we headed to one of my favourite hikes, the route to Los Sauces, near El Burgo. The river was alive with clear fresh water after te recent rains, so different to when I was last there.
Driving through old town in El Burgo I nearly got stuck!
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