Indy Reads
  • ABOUT
    • Our Mission
    • Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Sponsors & Partners
    • Latest News
    • Impact
  • PROGRAMS
    • Student Yearbook ’20-’21
    • Customer Service Skills Program
    • Literacy Foundations
    • High School Equivalency Diploma (HSE)
    • English Language Learners (ELL)
      • Want to Learn English?
      • ¿Quieres aprender inglés?
      • အင်္ဂလိပ်စာလေ့လာချင်ပါသလား
      • Veux-tu apprendre l’anglais?
      • هل تريد تعلم اللغة الإنجليزية؟
      • Queres aprender inglês?
    • Certifications
      • Customer Service Certification
      • Paraprofessional Training and Certification
  • BOOKSTORE
    • Hours & Location
    • Shop Online
    • Donate Books
    • Shop Audiobooks
    • Shop Merch
    • Consignment
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Join Our Team
    • AmeriCorps
    • Volunteer
    • Ways to Give
  • EVENTS
    • Submit an Event
    • Event Calendar
  • CONTACT
    • Prospective Student Form
  • DONATE
  • ABOUT
    • Our Mission
    • Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Sponsors & Partners
    • Latest News
    • Impact
  • PROGRAMS
    • Student Yearbook ’20-’21
    • Customer Service Skills Program
    • Literacy Foundations
    • High School Equivalency Diploma (HSE)
    • English Language Learners (ELL)
      • Want to Learn English?
      • ¿Quieres aprender inglés?
      • အင်္ဂလိပ်စာလေ့လာချင်ပါသလား
      • Veux-tu apprendre l’anglais?
      • هل تريد تعلم اللغة الإنجليزية؟
      • Queres aprender inglês?
    • Certifications
      • Customer Service Certification
      • Paraprofessional Training and Certification
  • BOOKSTORE
    • Hours & Location
    • Shop Online
    • Donate Books
    • Shop Audiobooks
    • Shop Merch
    • Consignment
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Join Our Team
    • AmeriCorps
    • Volunteer
    • Ways to Give
  • EVENTS
    • Submit an Event
    • Event Calendar
  • CONTACT
    • Prospective Student Form
  • DONATE
November 2, 2018

Xantolo: A Harvest Celebration

Xantolo Arch

Yesterday, I shared my experience attending the Día de Los Muertos event at the Eiteljorg. Today I’m sharing our conversation with Indy Reads student, Fortino Martinez, who told us about how he celebrates the holiday.

Fortino is from the city of Ciudad Valles in the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The city is in the Huasteca Potosina region, close to Central Mexico. He told us that celebrations of Día de Los Muertos in his region are different than in the United States in a few ways:

In Fortino’s region, people celebrate Xantolo, a traditional harvest festival that begins October 30th and ends November 2nd. It is believed that on November 1st, the spirits of children return and adults return on November 2nd. Families travel to cemeteries on October 31st and spend the whole day there and bring food and drinks as offerings.

To celebrate the returning spirits, members of the community make arches out of flexible tree branches and drape them with strings of cempasuchil, or Mexican marigolds. Tables decorated with brightly colored fabrics and candles, featured photos of loved ones who’ve passed on, along with their favorite food and drinks.

Mandarins are in season in Mexico during this time, so they are also placed in the arches and on tables, along with sweetbreads, water, and colorful sugar skulls. Another colorful feature on the altar tables includes papel picado, which is paper cut into decorative shapes. Many of the decorations feature Catrina, the female skeleton symbol of Día de Los Muertos. The arches, which can be simple or extravagant, may be displayed inside or outside.

Another aspect of the Xantolo celebration is traditional dancing and costumes. Groups of dancers dressed in costume to represent the dead dance to traditional music in the town square. Men dress up as old women and women dress up as old men. The groups compete against each other for the best costumes, and the entire community comes out to watch the performance.

“I like the arches and I like to watch this kind of dancing,” Fortino said.

Celebrations in the city are different than in small towns.

“For example, in the city, they do only the show in front of the main building of the city.”

Fortino doesn’t celebrate the holiday in the US, but has fond memories of participating in the festival in Mexico. He said, “In my city, it’s a tradition. In the small, small towns around my city, people still speak native languages and dialects. The young people in the city dance and go from house to house and they can stay all day dancing. In this season they make a lot of tamales. When people come to your home, you feed them. They make a lot of food in their homes for people who come to visit. It’s much better in a small town because you can eat a lot. You can go to from home to home, eating tamales. Other thing they do, they go to the cemetery. They stay there all day and bring flowers and candles.”

 


 

Lydia Johnson is the Operations Manager for Indy Reads. She’s a writer originally from Gary, Indiana who loves tea, poetry, and the arts.

Indy Reads Indy Reads Staff Indy Reads Writes
Previous StoryDía de Los Muertos at the Eiteljorg
Next StoryMeet October’s IndyGo Student of the Month – Bethny!

Latest Posts

  • Toby Stark_Headshot_Higher Res
    Indy Reads Appoints New Chief Development & Communications Officer, Toby Stark
  • Indy Reads Announces Corporate Sponsors for 2022
  • Egg Hunt: Save the Date for April 16th!
  • Indy Reads Receives $125,000 Grant from the Margot L. Eccles Arts & Culture Fund, a CICF Fund
  • Indy Reads Receives $4,000 Grant from the Nora Roberts Foundation

About

Our mission is to build the literacy, English language, and job readiness skills to empower adults and families to reach their full potential.
 

Upcoming Events

May

June 2022

July
MO
TU
WE
TH
FR
SA
SU
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
Events for June

1st

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Spring Financial Literacy Series with Centier Bank

Indy Reads
Events for June

2nd

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Chess Club with Colin Hargreaves

Indy Reads
Events for June

3rd

No Events
Events for June

4th

No Events
Events for June

5th

No Events
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Events for June

6th

No Events
Events for June

7th

No Events
Events for June

8th

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Writing for Mindfulness with Manon Voice

Indy Reads
Events for June

9th

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Chess Club with Colin Hargreaves

Indy Reads
Events for June

10th

No Events
Events for June

11th

6:30 pm

PRIDE Poetry Slam & Open Mic with Booth

Indy Reads
Events for June

12th

2:00 pm

Farrah Alexander – Resistance in the Bluegrass: Empowering the Commonwealth

Indy Reads
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Events for June

13th

No Events
Events for June

14th

No Events
Events for June

15th

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Spring Financial Literacy Series with Centier Bank

Indy Reads
Events for June

16th

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Chess Club with Colin Hargreaves

Indy Reads
Events for June

17th

No Events
Events for June

18th

2:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Vision Board Creation Workshop

Indy Reads
Events for June

19th

12:00 pm

Drag Story Hour with Prince Brentlee

Indy Reads
Cover photo of Arab Indianapolis by Edward E. Curtis IV
2:00 pm

Edward E. Curtis IV: Arab Indianapolis

Indy Reads
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Events for June

20th

No Events
Events for June

21st

No Events
Events for June

22nd

No Events
Events for June

23rd

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Chess Club with Colin Hargreaves

Indy Reads
7:00 pm

AmeriCorps Q&A Open House

Indy Reads
Events for June

24th

No Events
Events for June

25th

2:00 pm

Georgia Gianakos Buchanan: If They Only Knew

Indy Reads
Events for June

26th

No Events
27
28
29
30
1
2
3
Events for June

27th

No Events
Events for June

28th

No Events
Events for June

29th

5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Spring Financial Literacy Series with Centier Bank

Indy Reads
Events for June

30th

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Chess Club with Colin Hargreaves

Indy Reads
Events for July

1st

6:00 pm

First Friday Local Author Alfred Stifsim Book Signing

Indy Reads

WHO WE ARE

  • OUR TEAM
  • BOARD OF DIRECTORS
  • LATEST NEWS
  • CONTACT

WHAT WE DO

  • OUR MISSION
  • PROGRAMS
  • GET INVOLVED

ABOUT US

Indy Reads builds literacy, English language, and job readiness skills to empower adults and families to reach their full potential.

FOLLOW ALONG!

Indy Reads Guidestar
en English
ar Arabiczh-CN Chinese (Simplified)nl Dutchen Englishfr Frenchde Germanit Italianmy Myanmar (Burmese)pt Portugueseru Russianes Spanish