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Mexican Day of the Dead traditions
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Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos is a holiday that is celebrated in Mexico. Day of the Dead is a day to celebrate the life of deceased loved ones. Day of the Dead starts on October 31 and ends on November 2. The first day or October 31 is Halloween. The second day November 1 is the day to celebrate children and infants who have died. The third and final day November 2 is for everyone who has died. Your loved one who has died will come back either November first or second to spend the day with you. The families will celebrate the loved one by eating their favorite foods, and festivals. It is also a tradition to visit the loved one's grave Day of the Dead is similar to the catholic holiday All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The differences …show more content…
This holiday is the opposite of that, it is a time of celebration and excitement. Some people may think Day of the Dead is celebrating death, but they are incorrect Day of the Dead is the time to celebrate life. Day of the Dead is a tradition that has been going on for at least 3,000 years. When it first became a thing it was a little different, but over the years there has been changes. Day of the Dead has always celebrated life even 3,000 years …show more content…
They have colorful festivals, they decorate the sugar skulls colorfully. Everything is colorful, even the tombstones. Family members don’t just visit their loved ones grave they decorate them. Sometimes they even celebrate at the gravesite. To some even fireworks are common. Most homes have ofrendas. An Ofrenda is an offering or a gift. An ofrenda is a table set up with a bunch of items. Some of the items being candles, fruits, vegetables, flowers, pictures, crosses, papel picado, and a crucifix. They also have salt and water that is used to quench the thirst of the souls. Like everything else that is decorated the ofrenda is colorful. Underneath all these items is a table cloth preferably a white one. When it is time for Day of the Dead they eat the deceased loved ones favorite foods. When they do this it’s not just a small meal it is a huge feast. They will sing, dance, and talk to family. They eat at the graveyards because that way they can eat with their ancestors. They go to the graveyards to clean and decorate the
It is a loving ritual, full of joy and remembrance. For those who did not grow up in a culture that celebrates such a celebration, these practices and rituals might seem odd. But bear in mind that in the US, it is common for people to visit the graves of their family members and friends who have left this earth, to leave flowers and to reconnect with their loved ones. Dia de los Muertos is similar to this common American practice, so you can see that the Day of the Dead is not that unusual. Dia de los Muertos allows the dead to live again. During this time it is believed that the deceased return to their earthly homes to visit and rejoice with their loved ones. The Days of the Dead are celebrated as a way of retaining connections with the unseen world a world we will all return to one
The infamous "Day of the Dead" or dia de los muertos actually takes place over a period of 2 days. It is the largest and most elaborate celebration in mexico all year long, its even bigger than Christmas. In the past, this period marked the time when the deceased could return to the world of the living and visit their loved ones, but now it is usually a time to celebrate, remember, and pray for their souls.
When someone dies their bones are burned and crushed into ash and consumed by the relatives. It puts a persons soul at peace to find a resting place within their family, it would be an abomination to bury them in the ground. Once this ceremony is finished the person is gone. Their name or person is never to be mentioned again.
Why do people celebrate death? Many people including myself have wondered this, and when I first heard of the mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos. Translated in english, day of the dead is a holiday where instead of mourning lost ones they remember their lost ones by making alters, decorating their graves with things they used to like or their favourite food and celebrate their life. This mexican tradition is now celebrated throughout the united states aswell and this year we decided to dedicate alters to people we lost in the battle against police brutality. We have lost so many souls in the past decade that a black lives matter movement was created. Its sad that it even had to get to this point but all we can do now is fight for change and
Day of the dead is mainly celebrated in homes and graveyards. But as the years pass this celebration expands more. From street parties, festivals, and parades. It has also expanded to different countries than just Mexico, such as more of South America and even in the United States. As people migrated to different places throughout the years their traditions did as well. For example Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles holds an annual
...parts of the celebration, October 31st, November 1st, and finally November 2nd. On October 31st, it is seen that the kid’s souls return. November 1st is considered the adult’s day of returning, and November 2nd is when all souls have returned from the dead and there is a big celebration. People of Mexico celebrate by making many baked goods and cooking meals, making objects such as masks and decorating papers and toy coffins to prepare for the return of the souls.
Some people celebrate this day out of fear, to show they are not afraid of death.
In my opinion, I find this holiday really interesting. For one reason, this celebration dated way back to pre-Hispanic cultures of Mesoamerica, in the region of Nahu more than 3,000 years ago. It all started after the Spaniards and it lasted for almost 5 centuries later. In the Nahu region, there are the Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecas, Tlaxcaltecs, ChiChimecs, and Tecpanec. For the Aztecs they celebrate the death of each king or ruler. They also honor or dedicate Dia de Los Muertos to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. After centuries of long celebration and unchange trad...
government. To meet the standards of a holiday it must be a celebration of commemoration of someone or something. Columbus Day did not become a federal holiday until 1937. Essentially, we are not one same religion so holidays are not religious based but morally decided. Some government offices remain closed on this day because it is a federal holiday. Columbus Day may be a public holiday yet some businesses and schools decide to remain open. In Latin countries, they celebrate The Day of The Race which is a national holiday honoring the origin of our population. It is named the day of the race because the Hispanic population is a real mix of races. Many parades and parties take place on this day to
According to the United States Census, an estimated 41.1 million trick-or-treaters hit the streets in 2015 donning store-bought costumes in search of Halloween sweets. Historically, Halloween began as a Celtic tradition on the thirty-first of October when people believed that ghosts of the dead returned to Earth. Various other cultures engage in fall celebrations honoring the dead, like Día de Los Muertos in Mexico where people build altars and bring offerings into cemeteries for those who have passed on. While many other celebrations trace their origins back to religious ideologies, the American Halloween celebrates drinking, costumes, and trick-or-treating. The cultural phenomena surrounding Halloween in the United States reflects the practices
It is hard to of the Day of the dead celebration without recalling all of the art that is linked with this holiday. Day of the dead art can take many form of folk art for instance: sugar skulls and other candies are hand-crafted with colorful designs, Masks, toys, puppets, paintings, papel picado adorn with beautiful scene, ofrendas are also considered art as they are arrange as artistically as possible, performances of theater and dance, colorful day of the dead decorations etc. “Day of the dead art is alive with smiling skulls in kaleidoscope colors, doused in a deluge of decorative and detailed designs”. Ironically this type of artwork is often colorful and lively, and does not portray the dead as something people should be scared of. Many, who didn’t grow up in a Latin America culture, do not know that the day of the dead art rejuvenates our opinion of death by presenting us with a view of an afterlife that is full of energy and life, an afterlife that is not at all scary, but one worthy of a joyous celebration. It brings with it the hope that once we pass away there will still be another tomorrow. This colorful expression of art mocks death in a playful way, though some might say that mocking the dead is disrespectful it isn’t, in mocking the dead with Calacas and Calaveras, we accept it and honor it, instead of fearing it. Craftwork of skulls and skeletons are commonly seen in ofrendas and ground street festivals.
All Souls Day, November 2nd, does anyone really understand why it is a holy day or is it just another meaningless holiday Catholics are asked to attend church? All Souls Day is a day that the Catholic Church has set aside to help pray for all the souls not yet joined with god. During this day, people are asked to pray for all of the departed who have passed on and are now in purgatory working very hard to have the privilege of joining to god.
Obon is held usually in the mid August or July for a week in which the spirits of the deceased are supposed to come back to the land of the living. Being held since the 7th century, it is especially enjoyable to the Japanese people. One of its key features involves offering food items to the deceased. Vegetables, fruits, rice, candy, rice wine, and among others are offered to the deceased. (But not only the deceased receive food; special foods are made to give away to neighbor, friends, and family.) In addition, respect is shown with floral decorations on the altar or gravesite along with incense burning and prayer. Particularly, prayer is said for wayward spirits that have passed away in the recent year, as it’s said they need more guidance to find their way. The Festival of the Dead, as it’s sometimes called, is a celebratory and social event. While this is not a national or public holiday, plenty of people from the city go back to their hometowns to polish up and clean their ancestor’s gravesites.
...days to remember great saints, and so forth. They also have a couple that are specific to their own history, including the celebration of Reformation Day on October 31st, generally regarded as the day when Martin Luther launched the Reformation. Interestingly enough, it coincided with All Saints Day celebrations, where the Church remembers all who have died in Christ with the hope of salvation and redemption.