Our cultural beliefs

Although it may sound strange for some people, but these days the graveyards in El Alto have been full of people, music, dance and hapiness. Each November 1st. we welcome to our dead relatives. The ancient belief says that, our ancestors come back November 1st. at middday and go back November 2nd.
To receive them we bake different types and shapes of bread. We bake a kind of bread called tantawawa, which represents one of our relatives. To represent a woman we put a small representation of the face of a woman and if it is a man, we use a representation of a man and the same for a child. Bread, fruit, flowers, sweets and ornaments are put on a table in order to receive our ancestors that arrive the first day of this month.
The next day, we collect all the things and take them to the graveyard. There, we put all the things again to share with people. Prayers come and after praying for our relatives, we give him or her a dish with bread, fruit, sweets.
Yesterday, I went to the graveyard. the belief says that all the things one prepares and carries to the graveyard should be shared with prayers called risiris. Generally, families stay at the graveyard for long hours. I was there for about six hours until all the things I took there were shared.