el dia de los muertos (mexico)

Written by i j

Monday, 12 April 2010 15:37

Some dais ago I published an article about the dance of the death in Verges, after reading it, Leticia Laguna (In our facebook) told us that in her country (Mexico) there was a tradition pretty similar every year, I asked for a little bit more information and she sent us the following article… ¡¡thanks Leticia!!

El día de los Muertos (Mexico)

What means “El dia de los muertos” in Mexico? For starting somewhere, it’s a real party full of colors and happy themes… that talks about death, but they see death from a different perspective.

Latin American people that celebrates this special day takes the opportunity to approach their dead and celebrate life itself. Even “El día de los muertos” is mainly associated with Mexico, in there are plenty of other countries in which this day is celebrated, each of them in a different way…

The main theme could disturb some people, specially when they relates death with something negative, but in Mexico, this theme has other connotations. Their ancestors aren’t anything to fear but just the opposite and “el dia de los muertos” is just the occasion to meet them in an atmosphere similar to Halloween.

Origins of “el dia de los muertos”

the origin of this celebration is found in the ancient Aztec, Maya, Nahua and Totonaca cultures that celebrated this day for 3 thousand years. Those rituals symbolize death and renaissance, this was represented with real skulls during the pre-hispanic epoch and were chaired by the Mictecacihuatl Good known as “La dama de la muerte” (the lady of death), nowadays known as “La catrina”.

Spanish conquers felt terrified by the native practices and in an attempt to convert natives to christianity they changed the date of the celebration of the festival to the start of November making them to coincide with the all saints days and all soul day.

how is it celebrated?

1st and 2^nd November are well differenced in the way how are they celebrated. 1^st is the day when the souls of the young people comes back and in the second is the adult souls which returns. Both days towns and cities set up a series of objects that form part of November ritual.

In first place there are the skulls, that are represented both as crafts as dishes of the day. There are also skull shaped masks with cranial shape and skulls which gets inscribed the name of the death or the living as a joke.

The shape of the objects is usually not gloomy, skulls always shows a ironic smile and food is in general sweet, being the most expected part of it for the children the sharing of sweets and candies.

“el día de los muertos” is celebrated in lots of countries of Latin America and even all of them has the same sense and significance, each of them gives the day their special touch.