Even though both Spain and France were Catholic nations, for instance, Spanish citizens celebrated All Saints Day with family reunions, feasts, and festivals.
Few French citizens marked the day at all. Catholic missionaries often incorporated native influences into their religious teachings. Spanish explorers were also more likely to marry indigenous people, creating a hybrid mestizo culture where such cultural adaptation is a way of life. In some of these photos, masks and other decorations are only half-decorated with calacas and calaveras. Every human being, no matter how beautiful or well-dressed, will eventually be exposed as nothing more than a skeleton and skull.
Sugar skulls are part of a sugar art tradition brought by 17th-century Italian missionaries. Pressed in molds and decorated with crystalline colors, they come in all sizes and levels of complexity. Drinks, including pulque , a sweet fermented beverage made from the agave sap; atole , a thin warm porridge made from corn flour, with unrefined cane sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla added; and hot chocolate.
Day of the Dead is an extremely social holiday that spills into streets and public squares at all hours of the day and night. Dressing up as skeletons is part of the fun. People of all ages have their faces artfully painted to resemble skulls, and, mimicking the calavera Catrina, they don suits and fancy dresses. Many revelers wear shells or other noisemakers to amp up the excitement—and also possibly to rouse the dead and keep them close during the fun.
Artisans stack colored tissue paper in dozens of layers, then perforate the layers with hammer and chisel points. Draped around altars and in the streets, the art represents the wind and the fragility of life. But the most authentic celebrations take place in Mexico. If you find yourself in Mexico City the weekend before Day of the Dead this year, make sure to stop by the grand parade where you can join in on live music, bike rides and other activities in celebration throughout the city.
Here are a few places that stand out for their colorful and moving celebrations:. Mixquic: In this Mexico City suburb, bells from the historic Augustinian convent toll and community members bearing candles and flowers process to the local cemetery, where they clean and decorate the graves of their loved ones.
Tuxtepec: This small city in the northeastern part of Oaxaca state is best known for its sawdust rugs. For days, locals painstakingly arrange colored sawdust, flower petals, rice, pine needles, and other organic materials in elaborate, ruglike patterns on city streets.
The festival culminates in a grand parade of skulls along Avenida Madero. A Catrina and Catrin pose before an ofrenda , an altar set for deceased loved ones. Ofrendas display portraits, crosses, candles, flowers, incense, and water, a refreshment for the spirits who have made the long trip home from the hereafter. All rights reserved. Learn more about traveling to Mexico , or explore our Day of the Dead page just for kids. Share Tweet Email. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants.
This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Mourning can be a very isolating thing, and some people want to be in community to connect with others going through a similar experience. Or, you can make your own altar and it can just be very simple—a candle and a photo. I have a daughter, and she might not have known my father but because I bring him into my home every year, she feels connected to him.
This is personally one of my favorite times of the year. We have an area of the cemetery where at least three generations of our family are buried.
My father passed away suddenly when I was 20, and it was just such a life-changing experience that I needed to find a way to remain connected to him. Around that time is when I also started learning more about this tradition and learning more about how to create the altar and what it signifies.
For me, it was a tradition that I started to do that then expanded to my immediate family. My mom loved Almond Roca, so we always include it. Source: University of Arizona. Search for:. Science Health Culture Environment. Share this Article. You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.
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