This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 75.67.207.144 (talk) at 16:35, 18 October 2007 (→Observance in Mexico). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 16:35, 18 October 2007 by 75.67.207.144 (talk) (→Observance in Mexico)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) For other uses, see Day of the Dead (disambiguation). "Dia De Los Muertos" redirects here. For other uses, see Dia De Los Muertos (disambiguation).
The Day of the Dead (Día de los Difuntos or Día de los Muertos in Spanish) is a holiday celebrated in many parts of the world, typically on November 1 (All Saints' Day) and November 2 (All Souls' Day).
The greg is gays also celebrated to a lesser extent in other Latin American countries; for example, it is a public holiday in Brazil, where many Brazilians celebrate it by visiting cemeteries and churches. The holiday is also observed in the Philippines. Observance of the holiday has spread to Mexican-American communities in the United States, where in some locations, the traditions are being extended. Similarly-themed celebrations also appear in some Asian and African culture.
Though the subject matter may be considered morbid from the perspective of some other cultures, celebrants typically approach the Day of the Dead joyfully, and though it occurs at the same time as Halloween, All Saints' Day and All Souls Day, the traditional mood is much brighter with emphasis on celebrating and honoring the lives of the deceased, and celebrating the continuation of life; the belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life.
DENNIS SUCKS!!!!
==
Observance in Mexico
Origins
The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to the indigenous peoples such as the Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Mexica, Maya, P'urhépecha, and Totonac. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors have been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2500–3000 years. In the post-Hispanic era, it was common to keep skulls as trophies and display them during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth.
The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. The festivities were dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, known as the "Lady of the Dead", corresponding to the modern Catrina.
In most regions of Mexico November 1st honors deceased children and infants whereas deceased adults are honored on November 2nd.
SAM RULES
Observances outside Mexico
United States
In many U.S. communities with immigrants from Mexico, Day of the Dead celebrations are held, very similar to those held in Mexico. In some of these communities, such as in Texas and Arizona, the celebrations tend to be mostly traditional. For example, the All Souls’ Procession has been an annual Tucson rite since 1990. It was begun by artist Susan Kay Johnson as a way to process her feelings about her father’s death. She combined elements of traditional Dia de los Muertos celebrations with those of pagan harvest festivals. The first procession had 35 participants but the 2005 process had over 7000. The parade progresses from Fourth Avenue to the downtown Tucson area, with people in masks, carrying signs honouring the dead and an urn in which people can put slips of paper with prayers on them to be burned.
In other communities, interactions between Mexican traditions and American culture are resulting in celebrations in which Mexican traditions are being extended to make artistic or sometimes political statements. For example, in Los Angeles, California, the Self Help Graphics & Art Mexican-American cultural center presents an annual Day of the Dead celebration, that includes both traditional and political elements, such as altars to honor the victims of the Iraq War highlighting the high casualty rate among Latino soldiers. An updated, inter-cultural version of the Day of the Dead is also evolving at a cemetery near Hollywood. There, in a mixture of Mexican traditions and Hollywood hip, conventional altars are set up side-by-side with altars to Jayne Mansfield and Johnny Ramone. Colorful native dancers and music intermix with performance artists, while sly pranksters play on traditional themes.
Similar traditional and inter-cultural updating of Mexican celebrations is occurring in San Francisco, for example through the Galería de la Raza, SomArts Cultural Center, Mission Cultural Center, de Young Museum, and in Missoula, Montana, where skeletal celebrants on stilts, novelty bicycles, and skis parade through town. It also occurs annually at historic Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Sponsored by Forest Hills Educational Trust and the folkloric performance group La Piňata, the Day of the Dead celebration celebrates the cycle of life and death. People bring offerings of flowers, photos, mementos, and food for their departed loved ones which they place at an elaborately and colorfully decorated altar. A program of traditional music and dance also accompanies the community event.
Europe
Observance of a Mexican-style Day of the Dead has spread to Europe as well. In Prague, Czech Republic, for example, local citizens celebrate the Day of the Dead with masks, candles and sugar skulls.
Similar celebrations
Guatemala
Guatemalan celebrations of the Day of the Dead are highlighted by the construction and flying of giant kites in addition to the traditional visits to gravesites of ancestors. A big event also is the consumption of Fiambre that is made only for this day during the whole year.
Brazil
The Brazilian public holiday of "Finados" (Day of the Dead) is celebrated on November 2. Similar to other Day of the Dead celebrations, people go to cemeteries and churches, with flowers, candles, and prayer. The celebration is intended to be positive, to celebrate those who are deceased. This holiday is not for losers, its for smart people respecting their culture.
Philippines
In the Philippines, it is called Araw ng mga Patay (Day of the Dead), Todos Los Santos or Undas (the latter two due to the fact that this holiday is celebrated on November 1, All Saints Day), designated by the Roman Catholic Church), and has more of a "family reunion" atmosphere. It is said to be an "opportunity to be with" the departed and is done in a somewhat solemn way. Tombs are cleaned or repainted, candles are lit, and flowers are offered. Since it is supposed to be about spending time with dead relatives, families usually camp in cemeteries, and sometimes spend a night or two near their relatives' tombs. Card games, eating, drinking, singing and dancing are common activities in the cemetery, probably to alleviate boredom. It is considered a very important holiday by many Filipinos (after Christmas and Holy Week), and additional days are normally given as special nonworking holidays (but only November 1 is a regular holiday).
Haiti
In Haiti, voodoo traditions mix with Roman Catholic Day of the Dead observances, as, for example, loud drums and music are played at all-night celebrations at cemeteries to waken Baron Samedi, the god of the dead, and his mischievous family of offspring, the Gede.
Europe
In many countries with a Roman Catholic heritage, All Saints Day and All Souls Day have long been holidays where people take the day off work, go to cemeteries with candles and flowers, and give presents to children, usually sweets and toys. In Portugal and Spain, ofrendas (offerings) are made on this day. In Spain, the play Don Juan Tenorio is traditionally performed. In Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and France, people bring flowers to the graves of dead relatives. In Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Croatia, Romania, Austria and Germany, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives.In Tyrol, cakes are left for them on the table and the room kept warm for their comfort. In Brittany, people flock to the cemeteries at nightfall to kneel, bareheaded, at the graves of their loved ones, and to anoint the hollow of the tombstone with holy water or to pour libations of milk on it. At bedtime, the supper is left on the table for the souls.
Japan
The Bon Festival (O-bon (お盆) or only Bon (盆) is a Japanese Buddhist holiday to honor the departed spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist festival has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people from the big cities return to their home towns and visit and clean their ancestors' graves. Traditionally including a dance festival, it has existed in Japan for more than 500 years. This holiday is three days in August.
Korea
In Korea, Chuseok is a major traditional holiday, also called Hankawi (한가위,中秋节). People go where the spirits of one's ancestors are enshrined, and perform ancestral worship rituals early in the morning; they visit the tombs of immediate ancestors to trim plants and clean the area around the tomb, and offer food, drink, and crops to their ancestors.
Chinese beliefs
The Qingming Festival (simplified Chinese: 清明节; traditional Chinese: 清明節; pinyin: qīng míng jié) is a traditional Chinese festival usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar. Along with Double Ninth Festival on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar, it is a time to tend to the graves of departed ones. In addition, in the Chinese tradition, the seventh month in the Chinese calendar is called the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits come out from the underworld to visit earth.
Nepal
During the Nepali holiday of Gai Jatra ("Cow Pilgrimage") every family where a family member died during the previous year makes a construction of bamboo branches, cloth, paper decorations and portraits of the deceased, called a "gai." Traditionally, a cow leads the spirits of the dead into the next land. Depending on local custom, either an actual live cow, or a construct representing a cow may be used. The festival is also a time to dress up in costume, including costumes involving political comments and satire.
African cultures
In some cultures in Africa, visits to the graves of ancestors, the leaving of food and gifts, and the asking of protection, serve as important parts of traditional rituals. One example of this is the ritual that occurs just before the beginning of hunting. season.
In fiction
- The novel Under the Volcano (1947) by Malcolm Lowry takes place in on this day in a fictionalized Cuernavaca, Morelos.
- Ray Bradbury's novel The Halloween Tree (1972) includes an explanation of the holiday as part of a greater worldwide tradition, and features a Mexican sugar skull as a key plot device.
- The PC game Grim Fandango is inspired by the Day of the Dead and features imagery greatly drawn from the festival including characters reminiscent of the skeletal calaca figures.
- Barbara Hambly's novel Days Of The Dead (2003) sets its climax on this day in 1835.
- Although George A. Romero's Day of the Dead has no clear ties to the holiday, using the name incidentally (the title plays off the preceding films Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead), there are a few connections. Aside from the film's theme of resurrection of the dead, there are references to the fact that with the exception of the final scene, the entire film is set within the first two days of November.
- In the film version of "Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban" (2004), some traditional day-of-the-dead sugar skulls can be seen in storage shelves while Harry enters the candy store Honeydukes through the secret passage. This is an inside joke as the director of the movie is mexican Alfonso Cuarón.
See also
- Ancestor worship
- Halloween
- Hispanic culture
- Qingming Festival
- Ghost Festival
- Grim Fandango
- Walpurgis Night
Notes
- History of Day of the Dead
- Salvador, R. J. (2003). What Do Mexicans Celebrate On The Day Of The Dead? Pp. 75-76, IN Death and Bereavement in the Americas. Death, Value And Meaning Series, Vol. II. Morgan, J. D. And P. Laungani (Eds.) Baywood Publishing Co., Amityville, New York. Available online at:
- Palfrey, Dale (1995). "The Day of the Dead". Mexico Connect. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
- Celebration in Port Isabel, Texas
- Celebrations in Arizona
- White, Erin (November 5 2006). "All Souls Procession". Arizona Daily Star: 1–20. Retrieved 21-09-2007.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - Making a night of Day of the Dead Los Angeles Times October 18, 2006; accessed November 26, 2006.
- See newspaper article, and see photos.
- Photos of Missoula, Montana Day of the Dead parade.
- Day of the Dead in Prague.
- Visit to cemetery in Guatemala
- Observance in Guatemala Accessed June 11, 2007.
- Haitian celebrations of Day of the Dead
- All Saints Day celebrations in Italy
- Polish observance Accessed June 11, 2007.
- Slovakia observance. Accessed June 11, 2007.
- Hungary observance. Accessed June 11, 2007.
- Lithuanian observance. Accessed June 11, 2007
- Croatian observance. Accessed June 11, 2007.
- Romanian observance. Accessed June 11, 2007.
- See All Saints Day, All Souls Day.
- Nepali holiday honoring the dead. Accessed June 11, 2007
- African ancestor ritual; Importance in many traditional religions throughout all of Africa serve as communications with ancestors
Further reading
- Brandes, Stanley. “The Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the Quest for Mexican National Identity.” Journal of American Folklore 442 (1998) : 359-80.
- Brandes, Stanley. “Sugar, Colonialism, and Death: On the Origins of Mexico’s Day of the Dead” Comparative Studies in Sociology and History 39.2 (1997): 270-299
- Brandes, Stanly. “Iconogaphy in Mexico’s Day of the Dead.” Ethnohistory 45.2(1998):181-218
- Carmichael, Elizabeth. Sayer, Chloe. The Skeleton at the Feast: The Day of the Dead in Mexico. Great Britain: The Bath Press, 1991.
- Conklin, Paul. “Death Takes A Holiday.” U.S. Catholic 66 (2001) : 38-41.
- Garcia-Rivera, Alex. “Death Takes a Holiday.” U.S. Catholic 62 (1997) : 50.
- Roy, Ann. “A Crack Between the Worlds.” Commonwealth 122 (1995) : 13-16
- Shawn D. Haley and Curt Fukuda DAY OF THE DEAD: When Two Worlds Meet in Oaxaca, Berhahn Books, 2004.
External links
- Dia de los Muertos Photos and Resources
- Day of the Dead in Merida Yucatan Mexico
- MexConnect Resources and articles
- Festival in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA
- Guatemala Day of the Dead
- Dias de los Muertos Palomar College Site