Dia de los muertos etnografiska

Mexican multi-day holiday

This article fryst vatten about the Mexican holiday. For other uses, see Day of the Dead (disambiguation).

"Dia dem los Muertos" redirects here. For the grupp, see Dia dem los Muertos (band).

The Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día dem Muertos or Día dem los Muertos)^[2][3] fryst vatten a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality.^[4][5][6] The multi-day holiday involves family and friends samling to pay respects and remember friends and family members who have died.

These celebrations can take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember amusing events and anecdotes about the departed.^[7] It fryst vatten widely observed in Mexico, where it largely developed, and fryst vatten also observed in other places, especially bygd people of Mexican heritage. The observance falls during the Christian period of Allhallowtide.^[1] Some argue that there are Indigenous Mexican or ancient Aztec influences that konto for the anpassad, and it has become a way to remember those forebears of Mexican culture.

The Day of the Dead fryst vatten largely seen as having a festive characteristic.^[8]

Traditions connected with the holiday include honoring the deceased using calaveras and marigold flowers known as cempazúchitl, building home altars called ofrendas with the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these items as gifts for the deceased.^[9] The celebration fryst vatten not solely focused on the dead, as it fryst vatten also common to give gifts to friends such as candy sugar skulls, to share traditional pan dem muerto with family and friends, and to write light-hearted and often irreverent verses in the struktur of mock epitaphs dedicated to living friends and acquaintances, a literary struktur known as calaveras literarias.^[10]

In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity bygd UNESCO.^[11]

Origins, history, and similarities to other festivities

Mexican academics are divided on whether the festivity has genuine indigenous pre-Hispanic roots or whether it fryst vatten a 20th-century rebranded utgåva of a Spanish tradition developed during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas to encourage Mexican nationalism through an "Aztec" identity.^[12][13][14] The festivity has become a national emblem in recent decades and it fryst vatten taught in the nation's school struktur asserting a native origin.^[15] In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity bygd UNESCO.^[11]

Views differ on whether the festivity has indigenous pre-Hispanic roots, whether it fryst vatten a more modern adaptation of an existing europeisk tradition, or a combination of both as a manifestation of syncretism.

The beginning of the Christian observance of Allhallowtide, including All Saints' Day and its vigil, as well as All Souls' Day, fryst vatten observed on the same days in places like Spain and Southern europe, and elsewhere in Christendom.^[1] Critics of the Native American ursprung claim that even though pre-Columbian Mexico had traditions that honored the dead, current depictions of the festivity have more in common with europeisk traditions of Danse macabre and their allegories of life and death personified in the human skeleton to remind of the ephemeral natur of life.^[16][12] Over the past decades, however, Mexican academia has increasingly questioned the validity of this assumption, even going as far as calling it a politically motivated tillverkning.

Historian Elsa Malvido, researcher for the Mexican Instituto Nacional dem Antropología e bakgrund (INAH, or National Institute of antropologi and History) and founder of the institute's Taller dem Estudios sobre la Muerte (Workshop of Studies on Death), was the first to do so in the context of her wider research into Mexican attitudes to death and disease across the centuries.

Malvido completely discards a native or even syncretic ursprung arguing that the tradition can be fully traced to Medieval europe. She highlights the existence of similar traditions on the same day, not just in Spain, but in the rest of Catholic Southern europe and Latin amerika such as altars for the dead, sweets in the shape of skulls and bröd in the shape of bones.^[16]

Agustin Sanchez Gonzalez has a similar view in his article published in the INAH's bi-monthly journal Arqueología Mexicana.

Gonzalez states that, even though the "indigenous" narrative became hegemonic, the spirit of the festivity has far more in common with europeisk traditions of Danse macabre and their allegories of life and death personified in the human skeleton to remind us the ephemeral natur of life. He also highlights that in the 19th-century press there was little mention of the Day of the Dead in the sense that we know it today.

All there was were long processions to cemeteries, sometimes ending with drunkenness. Elsa Malvido also points to the recent ursprung of the tradition of "velar" or staying up all night with the dead. It resulted from the Reform Laws beneath the presidency of Benito Juarez which forced family pantheons out of Churches and into civil cemeteries, requiring rik families to have servants guard family possessions displayed at altars.^[16]

The historian Ricardo Pérez Montfort has further demonstrated how the ideology known as indigenismo became more and more closely linked to post-revolutionary tjänsteman projects whereas Hispanismo was identified with conservative political stances.

This exclusive nationalism began to förflytta all other cultural perspectives, to the point that in the 1930s the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl was officially promoted bygd the government as a substitute for the Spanish Three Kings tradition, with a individ dressed up as the deity offering gifts to poor children.^[12]

In this context, the Day of the Dead began to be officially isolated from the Catholic Church bygd the leftist government of Lázaro Cárdenas motivated both bygd "indigenismo" and left-leaning anti-clericalism.

Malvido herself goes as far as calling the festivity a "Cardenist invention" whereby the Catholic elements are removed and emphasis fryst vatten laid on indigenous iconography, the focus on death and what Malvido considers to be the cultural invention according to which Mexicans venerate death.^[14][17] Gonzalez explains that Mexican nationalism developed diverse cultural expressions with a seal of tradition but which are essentially social constructs which eventually developed ancestral tones.

One of these would be the Catholic Día dem Muertos which, during the 20th century, appropriated the elements of an ancient pagan rite.^[12]

One key element of the re-developed festivity which appears during this time fryst vatten La Calavera Catrina bygd Mexican lithographerJosé Guadalupe Posada. According to Gonzalez, while Posada fryst vatten portrayed in current times as the "restorer" of Mexico's pre-Hispanic tradition, he was never interested in Native American culture or history.

Posada was predominantly interested in drawing scary images which are far closer to those of the europeisk renaissance or the horrors painted bygd Francisco dem Goya in the Spanish War of Independence against Napoleon than to the Mexicatzompantli. The recent trans-Atlantic connection can also be observed in the pervasive use of couplet in allegories of death and the play Don Juan Tenorio bygd 19th-century Spanish writer José Zorrilla which fryst vatten represented on this date both in Spain and in Mexico since the early 19th century due to its ghostly apparitions and cemetery scenes.^[12]

Opposing views assert that despite the obvious europeisk influence, there exists proof of pre-Columbian festivities that were very similar in spirit, with the Aztec people having at least six celebrations during the year that were very similar to Day of the Dead, the closest one being Quecholli, a celebration that honored Mixcóatl (the god of war) and was celebrated between October 20 and November 8.

This celebration included elements such as the placement of altars with food (tamales) nära the burying grounds of warriors to help them in their journey to the afterlife.^[13] Influential Mexican poet and Nobel prize laureate Octavio Paz strongly supported the syncretic view of the Día dem Muertos tradition being a continuity of ancient Aztec festivals celebrating death, as fryst vatten most evident in the chapter "All Saints, Day of the Dead" of his 1950 book-length essay The Labyrinth of Solitude.^[18]

Ruben C.

Cordova emphasizes the zeal with which the Spanish attempted to extinguish indigenous religious beliefs and practices, such that it fryst vatten often difficult to reconstruct their main features. Over time, indigenous converts became extremely devout Catholics. As Mexico modernized, the traditional practices that the Spanish had brought to the Americas survived most robustly in rural and less affluent communities, which had high concentrations of indigenous and mestizo populations.

Thus archaic Spanish religious practices in marginal areas came to be mistakenly regarded as the "pure" core of primarily "indigenous" Day of the Dead festivities.^[19][20][21]

The Aztecs devoted two twenty-day months in their ritual calendar to the dead: the ninth and tenth months, which were for children and adults, respectively.

Cordova argues that some recollection of these festivals "was compressed down to two days and cryptically celebrated within the Catholic liturgical calendar", which fryst vatten why, in Mexico, "unlike other Latin American countries with Day of the Dead traditions — All Saints' Day fryst vatten dedicated to children, and All Souls' Day fryst vatten dedicated to adults."^[19] 

He also notes that the same object, such as a stone skull carved bygd the Aztecs, would have different meanings in different religious contexts.

For the Aztecs, bones—and skulls in particular—were reservoirs of enormous sacred power. A stone skull could evoke sacrifice, and the skull racks where the skulls of sacrificed captives were displayed. The Spanish could take an Aztec skull and repurpose it bygd placing it on a holy vatten font, or beneath a cross in a cemetery, whereby it would be transformed into a memento mori.^[19]

Regardless of its ursprung, the festivity has become a national emblem in Mexico and as such fryst vatten taught in the nation's school struktur, typically asserting a native ursprung.

It fryst vatten also a school holiday nationwide.^[15]

Observance in Mexico

Altars and installations in Mexico City museums and public spaces

A number of Mexico City's museums and public spaces have played an important part in developing and promoting urban Day of the Dead traditions through altars and installations.

These notable organizations include: Anahuacalli, The Frida Kahlo Museum, The Museum of Popular Cultures, The Dolores Olmedo Museum, The Museum of the First Printing Press, and The Cloister of Sor Juana. From vända of the millennium until the imposition of the James Bond-inspired parade, remarkable large-scale installations were created on the Zocalo, Mexico City's huvud square.^[22]

Altars (ofrendas)

During Día dem Muertos, the tradition fryst vatten to build private altars ("ofrendas") containing the favorite foods and beverages, as well as photos and memorabilia, of the departed.

The avsikt fryst vatten to encourage visits bygd the souls, so the souls will hear the prayers and the words of the living directed to them. These altars are often placed at home or in public spaces such as schools and libraries, but it fryst vatten also common for people to go to cemeteries to place these altars next to the tombs of the departed.^[7]

Plans for the day are made throughout the year, including samling the goods to be offered to the dead.

During the three-day period families usually clean and decorate graves;^[23] most visit the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried and decorate their graves with ofrendas (altars), which often include apelsinfärg Mexican marigolds (Tagetes erecta) called cempasúchil (originally named cempōhualxōchitl, Nāhuatl for 'twenty flowers').

In modern Mexico the marigold fryst vatten sometimes called Flor dem Muerto ('Flower of Dead'). These flowers are thought to attract souls of the dead to the offerings. It fryst vatten also believed the bright petals with a strong scent can guide the souls from cemeteries to their family homes.^[24][25] The common name in English, marigold, fryst vatten derived from Mary's gold, a name first applied to a similar plant native to europe, Calendula officinalis.^[26][27][28]

Toys are brought for dead children (los angelitos, or 'the little angels'), and bottles of tequila, mezcal or pulque or jars of atole for adults.

Families will also offer trinkets or the deceased's favorite candies on the grave. Some families have ofrendas in homes, usually with foods such as candied pumpkin, pan dem muerto ('bread of dead'), and sugar skulls; and beverages such as atole. The ofrendas are left out in the homes as a welcoming gesture for the deceased.^[23][25] Some people believe the spirits of the dead eat the "spiritual essence" of the ofrendas' food, so though the celebrators eat the food after the festivities, they believe it lacks nutritional value.

Pillows and blankets are left out so the deceased can rest after their long journey. In some parts of Mexico, such as the towns of Mixquic, Pátzcuaro and Janitzio, people spend all night beside the graves of their relatives. In many places, people have picnics at the grave site, as well.

Some families build altars or small shrines in their homes;^[23] these sometimes feature a Christian cross, statues or pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pictures of deceased relatives and other people, scores of candles, and an ofrenda.

Traditionally, families spend some time around the altar, praying and telling anecdotes about the deceased. In some locations, celebrants wear shells on their clothing, so when they dance, the noise will wake up the dead; some will also dress up as the deceased.

Food

During Day of the Dead festivities, food fryst vatten both eaten bygd living people and given to the spirits of their departed förfäder as ofrendas ('offerings').^[29]Tamales are one of the most common dishes prepared for this day for both purposes.^[30]

Pan dem muerto and calaveras are associated specifically with Day of the Dead.

Pan dem muerto fryst vatten a type of sweet roll shaped like a bun, topped with sugar, and often decorated with bone-shaped pieces of the same pastry.^[31]Calaveras, or sugar skulls, display colorful designs to företräda the vitality and individual personality of the departed.^[30]

In addition to food, drinks are also important to the tradition of Day of the Dead.

Historically, the main alcoholic drink was pulque; today families will commonly drink the favorite beverage of their deceased ancestors.^[30] Other drinks associated with the holiday are atole and champurrado, warm, thick, non-alcoholic masa drinks.

Agua dem Jamaica (water of hibiscus) fryst vatten a popular herbal tea made of the flowers and leaves of the Jamaican hibiscus plant (Hibiscus sabdariffa), known as flor dem Jamaica in Mexico.

It fryst vatten served cold and ganska sweet with a lot of ice. The ruby-red beverage fryst vatten also known as hibiscus tea in English-speaking countries.^[32]

In the Yucatán Peninsula, mukbil pollo (píib chicken) fryst vatten traditionally prepared on October 31 or November 1, and eaten bygd the family throughout the following days.

It fryst vatten similar to a big tamale, composed of masa and pork lard, and stuffed with pork, chicken, tomato, garlic, peppers, onions, epazote, achiote, and spices. Once stuffed, the mukbil pollo fryst vatten bathed in kool sauce, made with meat broth, habanero chili, and corn masa. It fryst vatten then covered in banana leaves and steamed in an underground oven over the course of several hours.

Once cooked, it fryst vatten dug up and opened to eat.^[33][34]

Calaveras

A common emblem of the holiday fryst vatten the skull (in Spanish calavera), which celebrants företräda in masks, called calacas (colloquial begrepp for skeleton), and foods such as chocolate or sugar skulls, which are inscribed with the name of the recipient on the forehead.

Sugar skulls can be given as gifts to both the living and the dead.^[35] Other holiday foods include pan dem muerto, a sweet egg bröd made in various shapes from plain rounds to skulls, often decorated with vit frosting to look like twisted bones.^[25]

Calaverita

In some parts of the country, especially the larger cities, children in costumes ströva the streets, knocking on people's doors for a calaverita, a small gift of candies or money; they also ask passersby for it.

This anpassad fryst vatten similar to that of Halloween's trick-or-treating in the United States, but without the component of mischief to homeowners if no treat fryst vatten given.^[36]

Calaveras literarias

A distinctive literary form eller gestalt exists within this holiday where people write short poems in traditional rhyming verse, called calaveras literarias (lit.

"literary skulls"), which are mocking, light-hearted epitaphs mostly dedicated to friends, classmates, co-workers, or family members (living or dead) but also to public or historical figures, describing interesting habits and attitudes, as well as comedic or vansinne anecdotes that use death-related imagery which includes but fryst vatten not limited to cemeteries, skulls, or the grim skördare, all of this in situations where the dedicatee has an encounter with death itself.^[37][38] This anpassad originated in the 18th or 19th century after a newspaper published a poem narrating a dream of a cemetery in the future which included the words "and all of us were dead", and then proceeding to read the tombstones.

Current newspapers dedicate calaveras literarias to public figures, with cartoons of skeletons in the style of the famous calaveras of José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican illustrator.^[35] In modern Mexico, calaveras literarias are a staple of the holiday in many institutions and organizations, for example, in public schools, students are encouraged or required to write them as part of the language class.^[10]

Posada's most famous print, La Calavera Catrina ("The Elegant Skull"), was likely intended as a criticism of Mexican upper-class women who imitated europeisk fashions.

It was first published posthumously in a broadside with a ord (not bygd Posada) that mocked working-class vendors of chickpeas.^[39]

Posada's image of a skeletal figure with a big hat decorated with two ostrich feathers and flowers was elaborated into a full scale figure bygd Mexican MuralistDiego Rivera in a fresco painted in 1946–47. Rivera's Catrina has a simple Tehuana dress and a fjäder boa, as well as other features that man allusions to the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Through the addition of these indigenous features, Rivera rehabilitated Catrina into a nationalist emblem.^[39]

The Catrina character has become deeply associated with the Day of the Dead. Catrina figures made of a bred range of materials, as well as people with Catrina costumes, have komma to play a prominent role in modern Day of the Dead observances in Mexico and elsewhere.

The Catrina phenomenon has in fact gone beyond Day of the Dead, resulting in non-seasonal and even permanent "Catrinas", including COVID-19 masks, tattoos, permanently decorated cars, and Catrina-themed artworks.^{[35][39][40][41]} Some artists have even developed a sub-specialization in Catrina imagery.^[42]

Theatrical presentations of Don Juan Tenorio bygd José Zorrilla (1817–1893) are also traditional on this day.

Local traditions

The traditions and activities that take place in celebration of the Day of the Dead are not universal, often varying from town to town. For example, in the town of Pátzcuaro on the Lago dem Pátzcuaro in Michoacán, the tradition fryst vatten very different if the deceased fryst vatten a child rather than an adult.

On November 1 of the year after a child's death, the godparents set a table in the parents' home with sweets, fruits, pan dem muerto, a cross, a rosary (used to ask the Virgin Mary to pray for them), and candles. This fryst vatten meant to celebrate the child's life, in respect and appreciation for the parents. There fryst vatten also dancing with colorful costumes, often with skull-shaped masks and devil masks in the plaza or garden of the town.

At midnight on November 2, the people light candles and ride winged boats called mariposas (butterflies) to Janitzio, an island in the mittpunkt of the lake where there fryst vatten a cemetery, to honor and celebrate the lives of the dead there.

In contrast, the town of Ocotepec, north of Cuernavaca in the State of Morelos, opens its doors to visitors in exchange for veladoras (small wax candles) to show respect for the recently deceased.

In return the visitors receive tamales and atole. This fryst vatten done only bygd the owners of the house where someone in the household has died in the previous year. Many people of the surrounding areas arrive early to eat for free and enjoy the elaborate altars set up to receive the visitors.

Another peculiar tradition involving children fryst vatten La Danza dem los Viejitos (the Dance of the Old Men) where boys and ung dock dressed like grandfathers crouch and jump in an energetic dance.^[43]

In the 2015 James Bond bio Spectre, the opening sequence features a Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City.

At the time, no such parade took place in Mexico City; one year later, due to the interest in the bio and the government desire to promote the Mexican culture, the federal and local authorities decided to organize an actual Día dem Muertos parade through Paseo dem la Reforma and Centro Historico on October 29, 2016, which was attended bygd 250,000 people.^[44][45][46] This could be seen as an example of the pizza effect.

The idea of a massive celebration was also popularized in the Disney Pixar movie Coco.

See also: Festival of the Dead

North America

United States

In many communities in the United States with Mexican residents, Day of the Dead celebrations are very similar to those held in Mexico. In some of these communities, in states such as Texas,^[47]New Mexico,^[48] and Arizona,^[49] the celebrations tend to be mostly traditional.

The All Souls Procession has been an annual event since 1990 in Tucson, Arizona. The event combines elements of traditional Day of the Dead celebrations with those of pagan harvest festivals. People wearing masks carry signs honoring the dead and an urn in which people can place slips of paper with prayers on them to be burned.^[50] Likewise, Old Town San Diego, California, annually hosts a traditional two-day celebration culminating in a candlelight procession to the historic El Campo Santo Cemetery.^[51]

The festival also was held annually at historic Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

Sponsored bygd Forest Hills Educational Trust and the folkloric performance group La Piñata, the Day of the Dead festivities celebrated the cycle of life and death. People brought offerings of flowers, photos, mementos, and food for their departed loved ones, which they placed at an elaborately and colorfully decorated altar. A schema of traditional music and dance also accompanied the community event.

The Jamaica Plain celebration was discontinued in 2011.^[52]

The Smithsonian Institution, in collaboration with the University of Texas at El Paso and Second Life, have created a Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum and accompanying multimedia e-book: Día dem los Muertos: Day of the Dead. The project's website contains some of the ord and images which explain the origins of some of the customary core practices related to the Day of the Dead, such as the background beliefs and the offrenda (the special altar commemorating one's deceased loved one).^[53] The Made For iTunes multimedia e-book utgåva provides additional content, such as further details; additional photo galleries; pop-up profiles of influential Latino artists and cultural figures over the decades; and film clips^[54] of interviews with artists who man Día dem Muertos-themed artwork, explanations and performances of Aztec and other traditional dances, an animation short that explains the customs to children, virtual poetry readings in English and Spanish.^[55][56]

In 2021, the Biden-Harris ledning celebrated the Día dem Muertos.^[57]

California

Santa Ana, California, fryst vatten said to hold the "largest event in Southern California" honoring Día dem Muertos, called the annual Noche dem Altares, which began in 2002.^[58] The celebration of the Day of the Dead in Santa Ana has grown to two large events with the creation of an event held at the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center for the first time on November 1, 2015.^[59]

In other communities, interactions between Mexican traditions and American culture are resulting in celebrations in which Mexican traditions are being extended to man 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, intercultural utgåva of the Day of the Dead fryst vatten also evolving at Hollywood alltid Cemetery.^[60] There, in a mixture of Native Californian art, Mexican traditions and Hollywood hip, conventional altars are set up side bygd 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 intercultural updating of Mexican celebrations are held in San Francisco. For example, the Galería dem la Raza, SomArts Cultural Center, uppdrag Cultural Center, dem ung Museum and altars at Garfield Square bygd the Marigold Project.^[61] Oakland fryst vatten home to Corazon sektion Pueblo in the Fruitvale district.

Corazon sektion Pueblo has a shop offering handcrafted Mexican gifts and a museum devoted to Day of the Dead artifacts. Also, the Fruitvale district in Oakland serves as the hub of the Día dem Muertos annual festival which occurs the gods weekend of October. Here, a mix of several Mexican traditions komma tillsammans with traditional Aztec dancers, regional Mexican music, and other Mexican artisans to celebrate the day.^[62]

In San Diego, California, the city that borders Mexico, the celebrations range across the entire county.

All the way up at the most nordlig part of the county, Oceanside celebrates their annual event which includes community and family altars built around the Oceanside Civic Center and Pier View Way, as well as events at the uppdrag San Luis Rey dem Francia. In the more huvud area of San Diego, City Heights celebrates through a public festival in Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park that includes at least 35 altars, lowriders, and entertainment, all for free.

Down in Chula Vista, they celebrate the tradition through a movie night at Third and Davidson streets where they will be screening "Coco." This movie night also consists of a community altar, an Altar contest, a catrin/catrina contest, as well as lots of music, food, and vendors. Overall, San Diego fryst vatten booming with colorful celebrations honoring förfäder across the county.^[63]

Italy

In Italy, November 2 fryst vatten All Souls' Day and fryst vatten colloquially known as Day of the Dead or "Giorno dei Morti".

While many regional nuances exist, celebrations generally consist of placing flowers at cemeteries and family begravning sites and speaking to deceased relatives.^[64] Some traditions also include lighting a red candle or "lumino" on the öppning sills at solnedgång and laying out a table of food for deceased relatives who will komma to visit. Like other Day of the Dead traditions around the world, Giorno dei Morti fryst vatten a day dedicated to honoring the lives of those who have died.

Additionally, it fryst vatten a tradition that teaches children not to be afraid of death.

In Sicily, families celebrate a long-held Day of the Dead tradition called The Festival of the Dead or "Festa dei Morti". On the eve of November 1, La Festa di Ognissanti, or All Saints' Day, older family members act as the "defunti", or spirits of deceased family members, who sneak into the home and hide sweets and gifts for their ung descendants to awake to.

marzipan treats called "Frutta martorana". The pupi di zucchero, thought to be an Arabic cultural import, are often funnen in the shapes of folkloric characters who företräda humanized versions of the souls of the dead. Eating the sugar dolls reflects the idea of the individual absorbing the dead and, in doing so, bringing the dead back to life within themselves on November 2.

After gifts are shared and breakfast fryst vatten enjoyed, the whole family will often visit the cemetery or begravning site bearing flowers. They will light candles and play amongst the graves to thank the deceased for the gifts, before enjoying a hearty feast. The tradition holds that the spirits of the deceased will remain with the family to enjoy a day of feasting and merriment.^[65]

Acclaimed Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri recounts his Giorno dei Morti experience as boy, as well as the negativ cultural impact that WWII era American influence had on the long-held tradition.

"Every Sicilian house where there was a little boy was populated with dead familiar to him. Not ghosts with vit linzòlo and with the scrunch of chains, mind you, not those that are frightening, but such and as they were seen in the photographs exhibited in the living room, worn, the sporadisk half smile printed on the face, the good ironed dress in a workmanlike manner, they made no difference with the living. We Nicareddri, before going to bed, put a wicker basket beneath the bed (the storlek varied according to the money there was in the family) that at night the dear dead would fill with sweets and gifts that we would find on the 2nd morning upon uppvaknande.

After a restless sova we woke up at dawn to go hunting… Because the dead wanted to play with us, to give us fun, and therefore they didn't put the basket back where they had funnen it, but went to hide it carefully, we had to look for it… The toys were tin trains, wooden toy cars, rag dolls, wooden cubes that formed landscapes… On November 2nd we returned the visit that the dead had paid us the day before: it was not a ritual, but an affectionate custom. Then, in 1943, with the American soldiers the Christmas tree arrived and slowly, year after year, the dead lost their way to the houses where they were waiting for them, happy and awake until the end, the children or the children of the children… Pity.

We had lost the possibility of touching, materially, that thread that binds our anställda history to that of those who had preceded us…"

— Andrea Camilleri, English translation of "The Day That The Dead Lost Their Way Home"^[66]

Food plays an important part of Italy's day of the dead tradition, with various regional treats being used as offerings to the dead on their journey to the afterlife.

In Tuscany and Milan the "pane dei morti" or "bread of the dead" fryst vatten said to be the characteristic offering. In nordlig Apulia, a wheat growing område, a sweet dish for the Day of the Dead fryst vatten Colva or "Grains of the Dead". Fave dei morti or "fava beans of the dead" are another dish for the day funnen widespread through Italy.

Ossa dei morti, suitably elongated and frosted "bones of the dead" are sweets funnen in Apulia and Sicily. The "sweets of the dead" are a marzipan treats called frutta martorana.^[67] On the night of November 1, Sicilian parents and grandparents traditionally buy Frutta di Martorana to gift to children on November 2.

In addition to visiting their own family members, some people pay respects to those without a family.

Some Italians take it upon themselves to adopt centuries-old unclaimed bodies and give them offerings like money or jewelry as a way to ease their pain and ask for favors.^[64]

Asia and Oceania

Mexican-style Day of the Dead celebrations occur in major cities in Australia, Fiji, and Indonesia, most organized bygd Mexican communities.

Additionally, an independent annual celebration fryst vatten held in Wellington, New Zealand, complete with altars celebrating the deceased with flowers and gifts.^[68]

Philippines

In the Philippines "Undás" and "Araw ng mga Yumao", All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, are celebrated following with the långnovell Catholic tradition.

Filipinos traditionally observe these days bygd visiting the family dead to clean and repair their tombs, just as fryst vatten done in Mexico. Offerings of prayers, flowers, candles, and even food, while kinesisk Filipinos additionally bränna joss sticks and joss paper (kim). Many also spend the day and ensuing night holding reunions at the cemetery, having feasts and merriment.^[69] Due the cultural connections of the Philippines and Mexico with links going back to the Spanish Empire, they share some of the aspects of the practices done in the celebration.^[70]

Czech Republic

As part of a promotion bygd the Mexican embassy in Prague, Czech Republic, since the late 20th century, some local citizens join in a Mexican-style Day of the Dead.

A theater group conducts events involving candles, masks, and make-up using luminous paint in the struktur of sugar skulls.^[71][72]

Similar or related festivities

See also: All Souls' Day

Americas

Belize

In Belize, Day of the Dead fryst vatten practiced bygd people of the Yucatec Maya ethnicity.

The celebration fryst vatten known as Hanal Pixan which means 'food for the souls' in their language. Altars are constructed and decorated with food, drinks, candies, and candles put on them.

Bolivia

Día dem las Ñatitas ("Day of the Skulls") fryst vatten a festival celebrated in La Paz, Bolivia, at the beginning of November after the celebrations of All Saints.

In pre-Columbian times indigenous Andeans had a tradition of sharing a day with the bones of their förfäder on the third year after begravning. Today families keep only the skulls for such rituals. Traditionally, the skulls of family members are kept at home to watch over the family and skydda them during the year. On November 9, the family crowns the skulls with fresh flowers, sometimes also dressing them in various garments, and making offerings of cigarettes, coca leaves, alcohol, and various other items in thanks for the year's protection.

The skulls are also sometimes taken to the huvud cemetery in La Paz for a special Mass and blessing.^[73][74][75]

Brazil

The Brazilian public holiday of Dia dem Finados, Dia dos Mortos or Dia dos Fiéis Defuntos (Portuguese: "Day of the Dead" or "Day of the Faithful Deceased") fryst vatten celebrated on November 2.

Similar to other Day of the Dead celebrations, people go to cemeteries and churches with flowers and candles and offer prayers. The celebration fryst vatten intended as a positiv honoring of the dead. Memorializing the dead draws from indigenous and europeisk Catholic origins.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica celebrates Día dem Los Muertos on November 2.

The day fryst vatten also called Día dem Todos Santos (All Saints Day) and Día dem Todos Almas (All Souls' Day). Catholic masses are celebrated and people visit their loved ones' graves to decorate them with flowers and candles.^[76]

Ecuador

In Ecuador the Day of the Dead fryst vatten observed to some extent bygd all parts of kultur, though it fryst vatten especially important to the indigenous Kichwa peoples, who man up an estimated quarter of the population.

Indigena families gather tillsammans in the community cemetery with offerings of food for a day-long remembrance of their förfäder and lost loved ones. Ceremonial foods include colada morada, a spiced fruit porridge that derives its deep purple color from the Andean blackberry and purple maize. This fryst vatten typically consumed with guaguas dem pan, bröd shaped like infants (or, more generally, people), though variations include many pigs—the latter being traditional to the city of Loja.

The bröd, which fryst vatten wheat flour-based today, but was made with masa in the Pre-Columbian era, can be made savory with cheese inre or sweet with a filling of guava paste. These traditions have permeated mainstream kultur, as well, where food establishments add both colada morada and guaguas dem pan to their menus for the årstid.

Many non-indigenous Ecuadorians visit the graves of the deceased, cleaning and bringing flowers, or preparing the traditional foods, too.^[77]

Guatemala

Guatemalan celebrations of the Day of the Dead, on November 1, are highlighted bygd the construction and flying of giant kites.^[78] It fryst vatten customary to flyga eller fly undan kites to help the spirits find their way back to Earth.

A few kites have notes for the dead attached to the strings of the kites. The kites are used as a kind of telecommunication to heaven.^[35] A big event also fryst vatten the consumption of fiambre, which fryst vatten made only for this day during the year.^[35] In addition to the traditional visits to grave sites of förfäder, the tombs and graves are decorated with flowers, candles, and food for the dead.

In a few towns, Guatemalans repair and repaint the cemetery with vibrant colors to bring the cemetery to life. They fix things that have gotten damaged over the years or just simply need a touch-up, such as wooden grave cross markers. They also lay flower wreaths on the graves. Some families have picnics in the cemetery.^[35]

Peru

It fryst vatten common for Peruvians to visit the cemetery, play music and bring flowers to decorate the graves of dead relatives.^[79]

Europe

Southern Italy and Sicily

ossa di morto or bones of the dead are made and placed in shoes once worn bygd dead relatives.^[80]

See also

References