Traditions of mexico day of the dead november 2 mexico. Mexico's national holiday is Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Sumo wrestlers against demons

Skeletons, decaying corpses, reanimated dead... Brrr! But this isn't a cemetery photo or a zombie movie - it's Day of the Dead in Mexico. And today you will read about this unusual holiday on the website "Me and the World".

"Merry" carnival

On what date is a joyful meeting with beloved dead relatives celebrated? Dates of celebration - November 1 and 2 - a day of remembrance for young children and, accordingly, adults. These days in Mexico, the dead are “rising”, and people rejoice and have fun, because they have the opportunity to meet with deceased relatives.

Why the holiday has such a name, we think it is clear. The history of this day begins with the Aztecs and Mayans, who kept the skulls of dead relatives and from time to time used them for their intended purpose, that is, resurrecting and sacrificing them for sacred rituals. It was sacrifices that were considered great respect for the dead, so the bloody days lasted a whole month in the summer in honor of the Goddess of the underworld.

Over the centuries, the conquerors tried to eradicate terrible traditions, but they only managed to cancel the bloody sacrifices and reduce the holiday to 2-3 days.

But it did not work out to replace unbridled joy with sadness for the dead, and the skull remained the main attribute of the Day of the Dead. According to ancient tradition, the Mexicans believe that the dead continue to live in another world, but every year for a few days they are allowed to return to the world of the living and see their beloved relatives.

Beautiful ritual

These days are celebrated across the country, schools and businesses are closed, and preparations begin months in advance. Colorful costumes and masks are made, large dolls of human height and above are invented, and flowers are ordered so much that they are brought on trucks.

Each house has an altar decorated with unusual designs and yellow marigolds (flowers of the dead). At the altar, there must be offerings: candles, cornmeal dishes, various fruits, children's toys and alcoholic wines. Be sure to put dishes with water and special sweet bread, because it is believed that the dead will definitely want to drink and eat after crossing into our world. After the day's chores - cooking a lot of favorite food of deceased relatives and tidying up the house - the whole family gathers in one room to meet relatives and friends.

In every store you can buy art objects: skulls and skeletons, and, in general, they are everywhere: on clothes, walls, on the road. Turtles mostly "smile", because it is fun party. And in the confectionery, they buy shards on sticks for kids - a kind of sweet candy. If you are presented with a coffin or a skull with your name on it, don't be scared - it's from the bottom of your heart!

Be sure to do a colorful make-up in the image of the popular Katrina. Who is this? Sweet, beautiful and rich woman from an engraving by a Mexican artist who strives to show that everyone is mortal: both beggars and oligarchs. Usually girls and women wear an outfit from the beginning of the last century, where a hat is required, but you can just paint your face and weave flowers into your hair. Men are not far behind, painting their faces in the form of skulls. Guys with beards look especially colorful.

Distinctive features

In small towns and villages, the celebration traditionally ends in cemeteries, at the graves of relatives, where they are escorted alive at the end of the holiday. Sincerely sitting at night at the burial sites, everyone returns home.

But in large metropolitan areas, fun takes place on a grand scale: festivals, parades and processions are simply a must these days. First the musicians come and play with such fervor that the dead can really "wake up". They are joined by all and sundry and this procession moves through the streets, and without a pre-planned route, cutting circles around the city. In 2017, more than a million people took part in the parade of the dead in the Mexican capital. This 2018 you can order a tour for 3 days and 2 nights with a Russian-speaking guide from November 1 to November 3.

The brightest celebration takes place on the island of Janicio. Duck hunting begins early in the morning, and at midnight birds are taken to the cemetery. In the light of hundreds of candles, women pray and men sing songs. Everything ends when the first rays of the sun touch the earth, and the night begins to gradually “melt”.

Almost at the time when they're celebrating pretty scary halloween in Europe, Mexicans contrast fear and horror with Day of the Dead fun. They believe that it is not worth scaring the spirits with a stupid pumpkin, it is better to remember the dead relatives with joy, and the spirits certainly will not do anything bad to the living.

And remember the name of a beautiful Russian holiday, when sweet Easter cakes are baked and the dead also return. Easter in Rus' can also be compared with the Mexican joyful Day of the Dead. It seems to us that there is no need for terrible holidays, the world is already so restless, so let's have fun more often and celebrate events joyfully!

Video

In many countries of Central and Latin America, an amazing holiday is celebrated - the Day of the Dead. In Spanish - Día de los Muertos (dia de los Muertos). This tradition originated in ancient times, and today dia de los muertos is one of the most beloved and popular holidays among the people. The origins of the custom to honor deceased relatives and ancestors with a festive feast date back to the time of the settlement of Mesoamerica (Mesoamerica, Middle America) by the first Indian tribes known to us. Mesoamerica included lands from Nicaragua in the south to central Mexico in the north. For several thousand years, the cultures of the Olmecs, Zapotecs, Toltecs, Mayans and Aztecs replaced each other, and the tradition continued to live. The Indians believed that death only marks the transition of a person from one state to another, and is just a transformation with which the life path does not end.

When and what do they celebrate?

Prior to the Spanish conquest of the continent, the holiday was celebrated in August when maize and gourds were harvested. The harvest was part of the offerings to the dead. This day was and remains a holiday, not a commemoration in our understanding. For Mexicans, this is a joyful opportunity to meet with the souls of deceased beloved relatives, the dead should not be afraid, they should share a meal with them, make offerings, tell them about family news and even ask for advice in the most important matters.

The Spaniards failed to defeat the "barbaric" (in their opinion) custom of keeping the skulls of relatives at home and pouring them a glass during the holiday. The only thing the Catholic Church could do was move pagan holiday on the first day of November, when the church celebrates All Saints' Day (Día de Todos los Santos, dia de todos los santos). The next day in church calendar- Day of the Departed Souls It just so happened that on November 1, Mexicans communicate with the souls of dead children, and the next day - with the souls of adult relatives.

Mexicans erect home altars, on which they place the favorite food and drinks of the deceased, put their photos, lay out the most favorite items. The soul of a deceased relative must remember the taste of earthly dishes. It is curious that the souls of dead young children are not given wine, it is intended only for adults. Children are given sweets and toys.

On the night of November 2, the graves of relatives are decorated with flowers, among which marigolds attract the souls of the dead. orange color(Flor de Muertos, flor de muertos - the flower of the dead). According to legend, the souls of the dead are allowed to visit the world of the living, but they still have to want to do it. So here you can’t do without tequila and beer.

Skulls and skeletons must be made. Skulls are usually sweet, made from caramel, sugar or chocolate, and they grin ironically. Apparently, from what he saw on the sinful Earth. A good friendly gift is a skull with the name of the person to whom it is presented. The female skeletons are a reminder of Her Majesty Death (Su Majestad la Muerte, su majestad la muerte). In Indian mythology, it was Mictlancihuatl, today it symbolizes Katrina.

It is customary to greet Death with festive multi-colored outfits. Yellow, red and white colors predominate. After all, this is not a commemoration, but a holiday with a carnival procession!

Offerings to the dead

In Mexico, the dead are offered water, which should quench their thirst after a long journey to the world of the living, salt to strengthen the bones of the skeleton - they will be needed to return next year, candles (a symbol of light and hope), flowers, incense. “Bread of the dead” is placed on the graves (Pan de Muerto, pan de muerto. In church tradition, bread is the Body of the Lord). Children are presented with a toy in the form of a dog, Izcuintle (izcuintle - a dog that helps souls cross the full-flowing Chiconauhuapan River. Sugar skulls are often placed on altars and graves. They also make large crosses from the ashes in the hope of helping the dead atone for their sins as quickly as possible.

The souls of dead young children, who are called angelitos (angelitos - angels), should not be put on dishes with chili pepper, because in life no one will give it little child. Flowers are chosen white, because the souls of early departed children remained pure and immaculate.

How are they celebrated in different parts of the continent?

In Honduras, carnival processions are held on the night of the Day of the Dead. The graves are decorated with daisies and marigolds, altars. Preparing honey sweets from pumpkin. Families gather at the graves at night, many bring singers (mariachis, mariachis).

In rural areas of Peru, residents arrange altars in their homes on November 1st. On the altar there must be dishes loved by the deceased during life, and something from the things memorable for the soul of the deceased. Dishes and drinks are left for the whole night, they can only be touched after the morning prayer.

In Venezuela, there are no processions on the Day of the Dead (this tradition is typical for peoples living in the territory of the former Mesoamerica). On this day, people come to the graves of relatives, put things in order and remember the dead.

In Nicaragua, the population celebrates this holiday in the most eccentric way - spending the night at the cemetery. Many even go to bed near the graves of their dead relatives.

Mexico's national holiday, the Day of the Dead, is at least 30 centuries old. Perhaps nowhere in the world do they communicate with dead relatives so noisily, cheerfully and joyfully, as they do in Mexico! Because even the Olmecs knew that death is just a kind of continuation of life.

500 years of Catholic propaganda, crossbreeding with the religious calendar, even a complete ban on holding, and all down the drain. Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) is still the most national, distinctive and pagan holiday in Mexico.

Party at the graveyard

The cemetery of the Mexican town of Santa Cruz-Jojocotlán is cordoned off by police cars. All parking spaces are occupied for several kilometers around. People flock to the entrance in dense merry rows and dissolve into the twilight, punctuated by the gleam of candles and the flashes of tourist cameras.

Inside, thousands of flickering lights illuminate festive pictures in rows and constellations. White spots on men's shirts, colored ribbons in the braids of older Indian women, lace women's blouses. Crosses and tombstones, strewn with a dense carpet of yellow petals, decorated with wreaths and bouquets of marigolds, filled with sweets, food, strong drinks, photographs, toys and souvenirs.

Tonight is the night from October 31 to November 1, the beginning of the main national holiday - day of the dead. Over the next two days, everything in Mexico will be turned upside down. The night will become day, the cemetery will become the most popular place in the city, the living people will dress up as the dead, and the dead will sort of come to life again. And together with everyone they will have fun, remember the past and teach the living not to be afraid of death, because it is not the end, but the continuation of the path, as the Mayans, Aztecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs and other pre-Hispanic civilizations said about it. Therefore, a mandatory night trip to the cemetery is not a sad wake, but a long-awaited meeting with relatives: an opportunity to spend time with them, and at the same time eat well, drink, listen to music and have fun.

Photo: Konstantin Kalishko, kalishko.com

Each grave has its own family idyll. The men are talking. Mom bustles around, pouring mezcal (agave moonshine) and spreading snacks on gravestones. Grandmother tells anecdotes from the life of the deceased. Daughters with bows that have moved to one side, dressed up as witches, play hide and seek and tag. The younger sleeps, leaning over his dad's shoulder, black and white makeup smeared all over his face. He does not wake up even at the approach of vociferous mariachis - street musicians who sing the favorite songs of the deceased on request. On this night, mariachis will sing until the morning and make half a year's revenue.

sugar shells

The Spanish missionaries tried to give the Indian holiday a gracious look, timed to coincide with Christian Day commemoration of all the dead and All Saints' Day. They managed to achieve the abolition of bloody sacrifices and reduce the monthly revelry to three days. But to replace joy with sorrow and a skull (the main holiday symbol) - with a cross did not work.

Skulls and skeletons are everywhere. In windows, doors, on balconies, on the streets, painted on the ground, on walls, on clothes. Sugar skulls-calaveras dominate, smiling and painted in cheerful colors. Arranged in beautiful pyramids on supermarket windows, they resemble the Aztec tzompantli - walls of the skulls of the vanquished, which once stood in every Indian city as decoration, intimidation for enemies and a beloved symbol of life and death as an inseparable pair. And don't be surprised if a skull with your name is given to you at the celebration - it's from the bottom of your heart. They are given to family members and friends. Children prefer chocolate and marzipan or in the form of lollipops.

But the main purpose of the calavera is to decorate the altar. An altar with offerings should be in every home, and in recent years they have been made everywhere: in squares, in schools, shops, police stations, hospitals, restaurants, hotels and airports. Otherwise, according to Mexican beliefs, the dead will be upset and may cause trouble.

Usually the altar is an arch of yellow marigolds, flowers of death, fruits and bright ribbons. A table or podium is set under the arch, on which compositions of sugar skulls, photographs and offerings are created. Among them are necessarily the sweet white bread of the dead (pan de muerto) and drinks. It is believed that after a long journey "from there" the spirits are especially thirsty. Depending on the personal preferences of the deceased, relatives put a glass of pulque, agave mash, or even a can of Coca-Cola.

Food, personal belongings, and toy skeletons are displayed on the altars, dressed in costumes corresponding to the favorite or professional activities of the deceased: a skeleton football player, an office worker, a newlywed, a priest, a drunkard, a dancer ...

Parade of the Jolly Dead

Photo: Konstantin Kalishko, kalishko.com

Heartfelt night gatherings in cemeteries are a tradition more characteristic of residents of villages and small towns. Residents of the capital increasingly prefer the carnival component of the holiday. And in this there is no equal to the Oaxacans.

Oaxaca de Juarez is a large colonial city in the south of Mexico, the gastronomic and cultural capital. If you are not afraid to be at the epicenter of the Day of the Dead, then you are here - in the city of dancing skeletons, painted skulls, brass bands and mescal-soaked mariachis.

Here they begin to prepare for the holiday a few months in advance. All schools, institutes and local communities are busy creating masks, costumes, life-size puppets. Drawing designs for altars, ordering trucks full of freshly cut marigolds. Musicians conduct daily rehearsals. All in order to joyfully go crazy for three days in front of thousands of tourists filling the city from October 31 to November 2.

As befits an otherworldly phenomenon, the holiday begins closer to the night. On the deserted streets, wandering tambora brass bands, a landmark of Oaxaca, suddenly appear. A huge tuba, trumpets, trombones, drums and Mexican folk instruments create a bravura mix of march, Balkan dashing motifs and Mexican folk melodies. A sound energetic that can raise the dead from the grave, and make the living walk and have fun all night without getting tired.

Wandering bands gather behind them long processions of mummers and just onlookers. Such walking is called a comparsa. Comparsa arises spontaneously and has neither an exact timetable nor a route.

It is impossible to resist musical hypnosis. And I, too, merge with the dancing wild comparsa, cut circles around the city after the orchestras, collide foreheads with the opposite crowd in the central city square of Zócalo, change the orchestra, again go to wind around the city and, fascinated by the noise and rhythm, I come to my senses only on the last night of the holiday .

Photo: Konstantin Kalishko, kalishko.com

In front of me, tired dead, skeletons, devils and witches line up for the last group photo. Death ruins the frame with his scythe. They are trying to push her to the edge. She grumbles but obeys. The photographer orders you to look at the camera and not smile. A frame from Almodovar's films freezes - strange, unreal, bewitching.

In the light of multi-colored lanterns, against the backdrop of an empty church and agave bushes, children and adults dressed in death look at me. For the first time in three days, their faces are serious. The musicians lowered their instruments. The game is over. The festive, mind-clearing madness is gone. The door to the beyond closes up next year. Adios, Mexico!

Traditional sugar calavera recipe

Photo: Konstantin Kalishko, kalishko.com

Ingredients

For the test

250 g powdered sugar
1 egg white
1 st. l. corn syrup (can be replaced with liquid honey with a neutral taste)
0.5 st. l. vanilla (it is better to use natural vanilla, not vanillin. Can be replaced with vanilla sugar)
40 g cornstarch

To decorate

colored sugar icing (buy ready-made in tubes or make at home by tinting with food coloring)
fantasy

Process

Photo: Konstantin Kalishko, kalishko.com

Sifting powdered sugar

In a very clean (fat-free) bowl, mix the protein, corn syrup and vanilla.

Gradually add the powdered sugar to the mixture wooden spoon. We mix everything well. If the dough is too crumbly, add a little water. Too wet - add more sugar.

Pour a little starch on the board, spread the dough and continue to knead it with your hands until soft and elastic.

We put a little corn starch on our palms and roll the right amount of blank balls. After that, we recall the human anatomy and proceed to curly modeling.

Leave the figurines to dry overnight. Start painting only after making sure that the figurines are completely dry!

Mexican holiday "Day of the Dead"- one of the most shocking, and at the same time, exciting and original holidays in the world. "Dia de los Muertos", as it is literally called in Mexico, is the time when thousands of the dead come to life and take to the streets of cities, celebrating and having fun, along with the living. At this time, in Mexico, everything seems to be turned upside down: the night turns into day, the cemetery becomes the most popular vacation spot in the city, the living put on the guise of the dead, the dead come to life. We will tell about this authentic Mexican holiday dedicated to the dead in our article.

It should be noted right away that in Mexico a completely different attitude towards death is practiced than in our country and in Europe. Death for the Mexicans is not the end of everything, but only a continuation of life, but in a different, more better world. Therefore, it is customary here not to commemorate the dead, as we do, but to meet with joy and fun. After all, the Mexican "Day of the Dead" is really a holiday, because, only at this time, beloved dead relatives have the opportunity to visit their loved ones left in this world.

The history of this holiday goes back to the time of the pagan beliefs of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, and is associated with the traditions of the ancient Aztecs and Mayans, who practiced various rituals of death and resurrection of the dead. Before the Spanish conquered Mexico, it was customary for the Aztecs to keep the skulls of their relatives in their homes and use them in all sorts of ceremonies. During one summer month, they arranged bloody sacrifices in order to pay tribute to their dead ancestors, the entire afterlife and the patroness of that world, the goddess Mictlancihuatl. The first conquerors of Mexico, when they saw such rites, were shocked, because while conducting them, the Aztecs seemed to laugh at death, Indian rituals were a real blasphemy in the eyes of enlightened Europeans. The Spaniards began an urgent conversion of the indigenous population of Central America to the Catholic faith, although it was very difficult to eradicate the traditions that had taken root here for centuries. They managed to cancel the bloody sacrifices, as well as reduce this holiday to a couple of days a year. However, the replacement of joy with sorrow and the skull - the main symbol of the Mexican holiday "Dia de los Muertos" - with the cross - failed.

Until now, for tourists who have come to this holiday for the first time, it seems very extravagant, and this is probably a mild definition of feelings about this. Traditionally, the Day of the Dead holiday is celebrated on the first and second of November. Moreover, the celebration goes on throughout Mexico. The Mexicans claim that in those days the afterlife comes to life, and souls are waiting in their earthly dwellings, decorating them with photographs of deceased relatives and friends, preparing their favorite sweets, symbols of the holiday are placed everywhere - bright skulls. Another symbol of the "Day of the Dead" is "Katrina" - a female skeleton dressed in a bright dress and a wide hat. He personifies the Aztec goddess of death, Mictlancihuatl.

What is most interesting is that now only the name of the holiday remains sinister, but he himself evokes only positive emotions. Thousands of people dressed up and made up as dead people walk along the streets, fairs work everywhere where festive attributes on this topic are sold: skeleton figurines, ceramic skulls, candles, various sweets, in the form of coffins, skeletons, skulls. On all major squares, the main streets of cities, huge skulls are installed, as well as bright installations are being built on the theme of the afterlife. It is very interesting these days to be on the main square of the capital of Mexico - the city of Mexico City, which is called Sokkalo Square or Constitution Square. On this square, which occupies two hundred and forty square meters, and which is the symbol of the city, there are ancient buildings left over from the time of the ancient capital of the Aztecs - Tenochtitlan, as well as incredibly beautiful colonial-style buildings built by Europeans. Not far from the square is a pyramid, on its top a century ago there was a Temple of the Sun God and the God of Rain. And it is on this square, on the Day of the Dead, that the traditions of the Mexicans emerge very clearly. But it is worth saying that in different parts of Mexico, during the celebration of the "Day of the Dead", there are some differences: if in the Valley of Mexico, the main attention is paid to decorating the altars and houses of the deceased people, then in the city of Oaxaca de Juarez, the holiday "Dia de los Muertos" goes on a grand scale: a real carnival starts here and the city is filled with "dancing skeletons" who have fun to the music of brass bands and mariachi songs. The deserted streets during the day, closer to the night, are filled with crowds of dancers, orchestras, followed by mummers and onlookers-tourists. Such processions arise completely spontaneously, without a route or schedule. Any person from the outside has the opportunity to join this raging crowd and roam the streets of the city after it. The carnival mood covers everyone and everyone, and it lasts until the first rays of the sun on the third of November. But in the Mexican town of Pomuch, the traditions of the Indians that existed even before the entry of Europeans to this mainland are still honored: on the “Day of the Dead”, the remains of loved ones are removed from the earth, they are cleaned of rotten flesh or carefully polished, bones already cleaned in past years. Therefore, for faint-hearted tourists, we do not recommend going to that city and walking to the cemetery in those days. That is, as you already understood, in the traditions of celebrating the Day of the Dead in Mexico, there are some regional differences. But everywhere, the festive scope of these days in Mexico, overshadows the celebration of Christmas. Sometimes, Mexicans are so eager for the onset of the "Day of the Dead" that they begin to celebrate it, even a little earlier - from the thirty-first of October. "Dia de los Muertos" is an official national holiday in Mexico, the days of which are days off, neither schools nor businesses work during this period.

Holidays can be divided according to the semantic load. On the first of November in Mexico they celebrate the "Day of little angels" - "Día de Angelitos", it is dedicated to honoring the memory of deceased children or babies. November 2nd, begins "Día de los Muertos" - honoring the adult dead. But this is preceded by many months of preparation, when the production of masks, costumes, life-size puppets begins in schools, institutes, and other communities, daily rehearsals of musicians take place, designs of solemn altars are created. Immediately before the holiday, these altars are created, which are decorated with flowers - yellow marigolds. It is believed that in this way it is possible to create a symbolic door between the worlds through which souls can return home. No wonder marigolds are called the "flower of the dead" - "flor del muerto". Such an altar should be in every Mexican home, and they are also created in squares, local schools, shops, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, airports. Not only flowers, but also other offerings are placed at the altars: candles, tamales - a Mexican dish made from cornmeal, fruits, toys - for small dead children, alcohol - for dead adults. Water is a mandatory attribute of every altar on the Day of the Dead, because the Mexicans believe that spirits suffer from thirst after traveling between worlds and from hunger, which can only be satisfied by a special sweet bread - "pan de muertos", literally "bread for the dead". ". Mexican women cook dishes that the dead loved very much during their lifetime, in each house they specially make a bed on which the dead who came could rest. It is customary for relatives and friends to gather in houses to joyfully meet the deceased.

On the days before the holiday, on all the shelves of shops, shops sell symbols of the holiday - coffins, skulls, skeletons - they can be made of chocolate, clay, cardboard. In general, skulls and skeletons can be seen everywhere at this time: they are painted on the doors and windows of houses, on asphalt and walls, and these symbols should also be on clothes. But it is desirable that the skulls be painted with bright colors and smile, because the "Day of the Dead" in Mexico is a holiday of joy and fun, not sorrow and longing. Therefore, if these days you are presented with a symbolic skull or coffin, where your name is written, then do not be shocked: they did it with all their hearts, because it is customary in Mexico. Such gifts are made to all relatives and friends, as well as friends. In addition, on shop windows, you can often see pyramids - the Aztec "tzompantli", which the Indians erected from the skulls of defeated enemies. It is a Mexican symbol of the inextricable link between life and death.

During the celebration of the "Day of the Dead", it is customary to visit cemeteries at night, but this, again, is not a sad event, but the real culmination of the holiday and the long-awaited meeting with relatives who have gone to another world, the opportunity to spend time with them, drink and eat in a circle relatives and friends. It is worth warning, if suddenly you also decide to go to the cemetery these days to look at the traditions of the celebration of the Mexicans, that the parking lot will be busy, and the cars of local residents will flood several blocks around. People flock here in a dense stream. They clean the graves, sprinkle them with flower petals, put wreaths and bouquets of yellow marigolds, decorate with candles, bring here the most favorite food, drinks of their deceased, as well as his photographs. Then they arrange picnics and dances on the grave, to the cheerful music of mariachi musicians. For Europeans, this leads to a stupor and seems like blasphemy, but for Mexicans it is an opportunity to create a family idyll at each grave. Everything is like on ours family holidays: women fuss, laying the table, men communicate and tell interesting stories about the life of the deceased, well-dressed children play and run, and babies calmly doze off in strollers. But it is worth saying that most often, the traditions of sincere gatherings at the cemetery are now supported in small towns and villages, and residents of large cities prefer to arrange fun carnivals.

In any case, for Europeans, getting acquainted with the traditions of celebrating the "Day of the Dead" in Mexico will be a blow to the usual stereotypes and reveal a completely different and opposite point of view on death. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to visit this Mexican holiday, we highly recommend that you do so.

The Mexican poet and culturologist Octavio Paz once remarked: “The Mexican, instead of being afraid of death, seeks her company, teases her, flirts with her. This is his favorite toy and enduring love.” The bond the locals have with this lady is truly special, and can best be experienced by attending the annual Day of the Dead celebration.

Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead (or rather, two days) is celebrated on November 1-2. Despite such a dull name, in Mexico this is perhaps the most joyful and family celebration when the living commemorate kind word their dead relatives, invite their souls to visit, are not afraid to make fun of death - and even kiss it. After all, Mexican death is, after all, a woman.

Mexicans affectionately call death La Catrina. In their imagination, La Catrina does not at all look like an ugly old woman with a scythe, but, on the contrary, resembles a frantiha dressed to the nines, a graceful girlish skeleton, smiling cordially at her fellow countrymen.

Baptism Mictlancihuatl

The Day of the Dead is a holiday that is hundreds of years old. It miraculously intertwined Christian traditions with the rituals of pre-Columbian America, preserved since the time when the two greatest Indian civilizations, namely the Aztecs and the Maya, inhabited the territory of modern Mexico.

The ancient Aztecs honored the goddess of death on a special scale. Mictlancihuatl, and that is how her name sounded in those days, was portrayed as a very pretty young lady, though with a skull instead of a face. She was always dressed in a skirt of rattlesnakes, which, according to the beliefs of the Indians, acted as guides to the afterlife.

After the Spanish conquistadors, who suddenly attacked the Yucatan, undertook to root the faith of Christ among the natives with fire and sword, the pagan holiday was likened to the Catholic All Saints' Day and moved in the calendar from mid-summer to the first days of November. Mictlancihuatl herself adopted the name of La Catrina in baptism and changed her “rattling” skirt to the colorful outfit of a rich Mexican duenna. However, the essence of the holiday has not changed - the Mexicans on this day, like hundreds of years ago, commemorate their deceased relatives, and not saints at all.

Sweet offerings

The first day of the holiday, called Día de los Angelitos ("Day of the Angels"), is dedicated to the commemoration of dead children, and the second - to all the rest of the dead. The main attribute of the holiday is an altar built by the relatives of the deceased. The altar is certainly decorated with flowers - white, lilac or fiery red marigolds. Each family tries to outdo their neighbors in decorating the altar. Among Mexicans who love to brag, competitions are even held to determine the best “funeral flower bed”.

In addition to decorations with flowers and aromatic candles, the altar is filled with items related to the deceased, those things that will be useful to him in the afterlife. In anticipation of a guest from the other world, caring relatives prepare gifts in the form of jewelry, memorable photographs, cigarettes and, of course, edible gifts. The living believe that these holidays the souls of the departed visit those with whom they had to be separated. They are not averse to joining a cheerful family feast, which is why the Mexicans try to treat their dear guests with the spirit of their favorite dishes.

If the first day of the holiday is usually spent in the family circle, then the second is dedicated to unrestrained fun and carnival processions. Thousands of marigolds bloom in the city squares, the central streets are filled with mummers - spirits, cheerful ghosts, skeletons, rattling bones to the beat of the music. mexican different ages with pleasure they try on the image of La Katrina - the fatal beauty of death.

Shop windows are filled to the brim with miniature coffins, skulls and skeletons made of sugar, chocolate, paper, cardboard and clay, as well as other attributes of the holiday. This souvenir product is no less popular among tourists than among the Mexicans themselves. These days, in all of Mexico, you cannot find a house where the name of a noseless duenna is not mentioned.

The culmination of the holiday is a visit to the cemetery. Mexicans bring with them flowers and candles, photographs and memorabilia of the deceased, favorite foods and drinks, which instantly turn the cemetery from a place of mourning into a cozy and “living” place. People have long conversations with their deceased relatives, have picnics, sing and dance right at the graves. From everywhere you can hear the ringing of bells, which helps the souls of the dead not to get lost and find their way home.

Día de los Muertos is a collective feast, when the dead are commemorated not on the day when they died, but all together, nationwide - with songs, jokes and dances. All this is reminiscent of a naive attempt to drown the pain of a particular person in collective fun.

Overcoming fear is the key idea of the holiday, and it is no coincidence that everyone takes part in it, from the elderly, who are about to find themselves in the arms of La Catrina, to infants. Little Mexicans like to walk the streets in costumes of the dead, gobble up sugar skulls and marzipan coffins by both cheeks, and literally hold death by the hand.

There is something absolutely correct in this seeming "savagery". Mexicans meet La Catrina at a very tender age, so they have no fear of death, but only friendly relations with her.

1 comment

A very strange holiday, I have never even heard of it. Also surprising and one might say strange way of doing it. Thank you, now I will remember this day!