PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO, November 03, 2009
/24-7PressRelease/ -- The Day of the Dead is an important holiday in Mexico and the reason for a large deployment of traditions.
History tells us that for millennia we celebrated death. During the ninth month of the Aztec solar calendar, the Indian organized for the occasion festivities which lasted all month. They had chosen this time because the weather changed causing the cold winds from the north. They were convinced that the spirits were carried by these winds.
The Spanish conquistadors considered sacrileges these beliefs and, intending to convert Indians to Christianity, altered and moved the festivities to November 1st and 2nd , dates established by the Catholic Church to celebrate the "Day of all Saints" and "Day the Dead". The result is a mixture of pagan and Christian tradition.
Death is the great mystery that accompanies every human being throughout his life. The only certainty we have is that we will die, we cannot know the future, nor even understand this, but what is certain is that sooner or later we will face death. Who has not already asked what there is after? But the answers can only be speculation. Death has been represented in all cultures through a variety of rituals, some of which have become traditions over time. The celebration of the Day of the Dead, with its deployment of customs, is designed to give children and adults the idea that death is a return of life to experience the rituals of some ancient cultures on the same theme, strengthening the character of the religious point of view by integrating the idea of death that scares us and fascinates us.
For the Mexican people, death is stalking you all the days of his life. He woos the challenges, he seeks and fears of a permanent game. A strange relationship that we might call the "ultimate love". Hispanic cultures believed the death as a duality to life. Nobody knows its exact origin, but the Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexican villages as an expression of fervent magic and history.
The origin of donations is the worship which the natives made their dead in the temple offering pods, flowers and burned incense to perfume the air and so pleasing to the gods who resided with the spirit of deceased.
The celebration of Day of the Dead is different by region, for example, in Oaxaca huge carpet sof flowers are covering the main streets, representing a real artisan work. In other places, ethnic groups reproduce the rites of their ancestors to venerate the dead. In others they are offerings or altars. Other altars are made according to tradition, which states that the altar must be composed of 7 levels or stages that represent the 7 levels through which must pass the souls of the dead before resting. These altars are made in places where there is a large space that can fit in around the altar. Each floor is covered with black cloth and white, each with a meaning and must contain certain specific items:
. on the 1st floor is placed the picture of the Blessed Virgin or St. vests,
. the 2nd is for the souls in purgatory,
. on the third we put salt for the children of purgatory
. the fourth one is the "Bread of the dead." This bread is decorated with red sugar to simulate blood, it is recommended that the bread is made by relatives of the deceased, being a consecration
. on the fifth one is food and favourite fruit of the deceased,
. on the sixth I was the picture of the deceased who is devoted to the altar
. on the last step we set the cross made using "Tejocote" and lemons.
The altars or offerings that take place in many Mexican households are a tribute to loved ones who are left in "the beyond". The altar is hung on a wall or a table, a photograph of the loved ones of the family are dead, we have about clothing, food, toys and personal items that the person was alive when used. There are other things like a glass of water to quench the thirst for the journey is long, candles to light the way (the candle represents the soul alone) and flowers are a welcome message for the soul, and also something very important: the incense or copal. The latter has very ancient origins, is the resin of the tree of the same name when it is dry and burns with a very particular odour, and is used primarily to connect with the sky as smoke rises and the is believed that it opens communication.
Another peculiarity is the old belief of the skull of sugar ; Skulls are made and the children play with them. Witnesses to a landline, they represent a kind of comic satire against the living and the dead. All this together forms a set of customs and traditions of a people full of respect and culture.
During the night of November 1st, the family and friends awaiting ensure that the spirit of the dead descend upon the grave and appreciates the offerings dedicated to him.
Under such profound dialectic implicit life brings death, death brings life, maize (symbolic plant for Maya), which retains the dried corn. The stem dies but it keeps the seed. The same concept applies to humans: they die, but their lineage continues.
This is designed to help you better understand the significant sensitivity of Mexico and the unique way of giving meaning to the celebration of Day of the Dead. More than the fact of death, what matters is what follows death. This other world on which we are trying to establish representations of customs and traditions create, which ultimately translate into culture.
Living in Playa del Carmen for over 10 years, http://www.kaaxan.com owners happily share the beauties of the mexican culture.
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