“Dia de los Muertos” or “Day of the Dead” here in Bolivia would be what you commonly know as Halloween in the US, although the way they celebrate it here is quite a bit different than Halloween. Here the focus in more on the dead relatives of the people, instead of ghosts and goblins and all the other things. The people here believe that on this day their dead relatives return for 24 hours to visit with them and to see if they are still remembered, so a special meal is prepared, usually what was their favorite meal. During this time some go the the cemetery and spread out a blanket (white for children and black for adults) almost like a picnic, while others set up a table at their home with the meal and usually with special pastries made in the form of angels, crosses or ladders so their loved one can make it back to heaven. It is said that the dead arrive at noon so the feast is readied for their arrival and they supposedly stay until noon of the following day so another feast is prepared before noon so their loved one will have the strength to return. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the indigenous people normally embalmed their dead loved ones so on this day they would remove them from their tomb and dance with them and eat a meal with them and put them back at the end of the time. When the Spanish arrived they prohibited this practice which lead to what is done today. At the end of the 24 hours friends family or even strangers are invited into the home to pray and eat the food and pastries which is called “raising the table” which marks the end of the visit from their loved one.
During this celebration this year all I could think about was how much the people don’t understand what happens to us after we die. Here hell has been replaced with Purgatory, where the people go for a time to pay for their sins and then they are released to go on to heaven. They fail to understand that Christ paid for our sins on the cross and only through trusting in Him can their sins be forgiven and they can go to heaven. What the don’t realize is that if their loved ones, that were not saved could really come back to visit them, all they would be saying is, “get saved before it is too late”. It really shows how much the people need to hear the gospel here in Bolivia, how much they have really no hope after death. Please pray for the ministry here that we can reach out to many of these people so that they will have hope beyond the grave.