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Day of The Dead

This document discusses the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. It is celebrated November 1st-2nd to honor deceased loved ones. Families build home altars and decorate gravesites with flowers, food, drinks and candles to welcome back the spirits. The celebration can be traced back thousands of years and combines pre-Hispanic rituals with Catholic traditions like All Saints' Day. Colorful folklore skeleton statues represent the joyous remembrance of life and death.

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Nie Shirly
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171 views

Day of The Dead

This document discusses the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. It is celebrated November 1st-2nd to honor deceased loved ones. Families build home altars and decorate gravesites with flowers, food, drinks and candles to welcome back the spirits. The celebration can be traced back thousands of years and combines pre-Hispanic rituals with Catholic traditions like All Saints' Day. Colorful folklore skeleton statues represent the joyous remembrance of life and death.

Uploaded by

Nie Shirly
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1

Kris Sanchez

Sarah OHara

English 101

February 26, 2009

http://www.lasculturas.com/lib/libMagazine.htm
http://www.superpages.com/bp/Tucson-AZ/Desert-Leaf-Publications-Inc-
L0140624955.htm


The Celebration of the Dead

Have you ever seen these colorful folklore figures around Tucson and wondered
what they are? These figures are associated with a Hispanic tradition known as Dia de los
Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
On November 1
st
, Dia de Muertos
Chiquitos, The Day of the Little Dead, is
celebrated in honor of departed children. On this
day family members bring toys and sugar skulls
to decorate the graves of the children that have
passed before them.
The evening of November 1
st
is called la
Noche de Duelo, The Night of Mourning; this
tradition is marked by a candlelight procession to the cemetery. However, this is not a
time of sorrow for its said, the path back to the living world must not be made slippery
with tears. November 2
nd
is the celebration of Dia de Los Muertos when the spirits of the
dead return to visit their loved ones. It is not a time of mourning, but rather a joyous
occasion when the memories of ancestors and the cycle of life is celebrated.
2
In the United States and Mexico families build altars in their homes to honor the
deceased. Grave sites are decorated with flowers, food, pictures and beverages such as
tequila. Some people believe the spirits of the dead eat and drink these spiritual
offerings. When the festivities are over,
those celebrating will eventually eat and
drink the spiritual offerings. However,
they believe these foods lack any nutritional
value. Pillows and blankets are also left out
so the deceased can rest after their long
journey. The gravesites are also beautifully decorated with flowers. The main flower
used for decorating is the orange marigold or cempasuchitl, these flowers are thought
to attract the souls of the dead. At night hundreds of candles can be seen around the
gravesites. The candles are lit so the dead have light to find their way home.
Dia de los Muertos celebration in Mexico can be traced back some 2500 to 3000
years. Back then the celebration consisted of real human skulls that were kept as trophies
to symbolize death and rebirth. These skulls or trophies were then displayed at a Dia de
los Muertos celebration, which was referred to as All Saints Day. Following the Spanish
conquest of Mexico, there was a strong attempt to convert the native population to
Catholicism. The Spaniards believed the Day of the Dead ritual to be sacrilegious and
viewed the native people as barbaric and pagan. The native population believed so
strongly in their beliefs and rituals that a sort of pact was made to convert some old
native rituals with that of some traditional Catholic rituals. This resulted in a combination
of All Saints Day and All Hallows Eve (Halloween) which is how Dia de los Muertos
3
came to exist. Although the skeleton is symbolic for both Halloween and Dia de los
Muertos, the meaning is different.
This is where those beautiful folklore skeletons come into play. These dead
skeletal statues are joyous, flamboyant and sometimes completely outrageous in
mimicking the living. The most
common skeletal statues are that of
female figures, which are known as
catrinas, a feminine form of the word
catrin, which means elegant.
Next time you see one of these
elegant skeletons remember to give
celebration to the dead!

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