Oscar Córdova Sánchez

The celebration of All Saints in Bolivia

Five days before the first of November, Don Max Siñani, baker for 25 years, prepares to place the orders of several families and vendors with the goal of making the largest number of figures such as t'anta wawas (bread children), stairs, suns, moons, llamas and other pastries, in order to give the best presentation to the families who will buy and decide how to set up their table (mast'aku) to receive their deceased each year. Don Max, accustomed to these annual orders, comments on the needs of each family or municipality and the exclusive orders he makes, his customers know his talent and ask exclusively how the figures should be placed on the future table, but what is the origin of this movement that has a tradition as broad as variable for centuries?

The feast of Todos Santos is celebrated from noon on November 1st and lasts until noon on November 2nd, where the deceased are received through tables, offerings, prayers and a great family gathering, and depending on the degree of importance they had in life, the table acquires the dimension of their transcendence in life, such can be a writer, intellectual, president or public figure of yesteryear, in which the followers also join the devotion that magnifies their image. 

But each city, municipality and community have an essence that distinguishes them from the others, based on ceremonies that unite the Catholic with the beliefs of the place and with the popular thought. For example, the setting of the tables (mast'aku), in the style of a banquet, is decorated with a black tablecloth for those who died at an advanced age and a white tablecloth for those who left this world at an early stage of their lives, implying the purity and innocence that surrounded their incipient development in this world. Adorned with candles, flowers, brooms; foods such as fruits, sponge cakes, soft drinks, a glass of wine or chicha or other food according to the tradition that the family wants to leave, since there is no specific scheme of food to be placed, it is simply to fill the greatest variety of food to welcome those who departed, attaching a portrait of them on the table; certainly the tables can be set for a group of relatives or just for one in particular. 

And here is the most characteristic and homogeneous of this tradition because in the case of the famous figures made, each one represents some detail that unites the passage between life and death, as, for example, the stairs mean the descent to our earth and return to the world of the dead, the sun and the moon to illuminate their way in the other world, being a necessary measure to highlight that the souls who visit us every year on those dates are received in the most cordial and respectful way.

In our environment the culture around death and the other world is highlighted with prayers, prayers and visits of faithful followers or families, this is increased in several cemeteries where, according to the popularity of the deceased, people gather around to ask for health, money and welfare in exchange for bringing as many objects for the assembly of tables. This rite has a primordial connection with the ecclesiastical codes and the Andean vision of death, which, thanks to this conjugation of rituals, increase the tradition and inherit the customs and superstitions to their descendants. A fear, in certain communities, is the non-compliance with the prayers to a deceased person or, even worse, that the traditional table with the portrait of a family member is not set up; this is a bad omen, since “not complying with the soul... brings bad luck” as mentioned by the traditionalist Antonio Paredes Candia.

For the second day is the farewell full of prayers, joy and interaction among the visitors, living together and talking about their future projects, ending the ritual of the tables and saying goodbye to their deceased with a venia of respect, awaiting until next year the return of those who were loved in life. 

Nowadays the tradition is still in force, trying to keep the customs in force, and although some descendants do not fully comply with the sacred setting of the tables and only leave a few prayers, they resist the current modernization; moreover, in these times it is also being added to give holy devotion to pets who passed away, and placing their portrait on the table, along with other loved ones. A controversial measure for some and positive for others, depending on the belief of certain families and the importance they give to the fact.