day of the Dead
The day of the dead , Spanish Día de Muertos (also Día de los Muertos ), one of the most important Mexican holidays, traditionally commemorates the deceased. The preparation time for the celebrations begins in mid-October; It is celebrated from the eve of All Saints' Day (October 31) until All Souls Day on November 2. The Day of the Dead is celebrated in different ways depending on the region.
The Customs for the Day of the Dead were declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2003 and in 2008 it was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity . The festivities in their traditional form are considered threatened as they are gradually being reshaped by the more commercial Halloween custom from North America.
Death as part of life
Everyday things in Mexico such as La Calzada del Hueso 'The Cobbled Bone Street' and La Barranca del Muerto 'The Gorge of the Dead' have a relationship by name with death. This becomes particularly clear in the time around the Días de Muertos, when the calaveras (skeletons made of paper mache , plaster of paris or sugar) are shown in all possible everyday situations in streets and shops .
According to old Mexican belief, the dead come to visit from the afterlife once a year at the end of the harvest season and celebrate a happy reunion with the living with music, dance and good food. In pre-Hispanic times, the Aztecs even gave their enemies a place to return to. The skulls were neatly lined up on a tzompantli as a vessel for the spirits. Spanish missionaries , who tried in vain to abolish the festival, merged the celebrations with the solemnity of All Saints 'Day and the Remembrance of All Souls' Day . Parallels between the Christian concept of death and indigenous belief made this syncretism possible . Even the Aztecs did not see death as the end, but as the beginning of new life; a transition phase to another form of existence. In mixing with the Christian faith, a unique cultural festival was created, which partially lets the customs of pre-Hispanic Mexico live on.
regional customs
The Day of the Dead is not a funeral event, but a colorful folk festival in honor of the dead. According to popular belief, on these days the souls of the deceased return to the families to visit them. During the days, the focus is on the memory of the deceased. The streets are decorated with flowers, symbols of death and transience, skeletons and skulls in the most varied of designs, are in the shop windows, images of the Calavera Catrina can be seen everywhere . Shortly before All Saints' Day, pastry shops produce the Calaveras de Azúcar , skulls made from sugar, chocolate, amaranto , marzipan, etc. a. that have the names of the dead on the front.
El Pan de Muerto is another popular sweet treat these days.
“[…] The bread of the dead is a sweet bread that often contains aniseed seeds and is decorated with bones and skulls made of dough. The bones can be arranged in a circle that represents the cycle of life. Small dough drops symbolize grief "
The offrendas , traditional funeral altars or tables for gifts in the apartments, some in public places, are the center of the celebrations. They are covered with plenty of food and drink, flowers and personal mementos. The dead should strengthen themselves after their long journey from the realm of the dead and take some of the gifts back with them. Photos of the deceased, candles and incense are supposed to remind of times together.
The streets are full of hustle and bustle. Apartments and cemeteries are magnificently decorated with flowers, candles and all kinds of colorful death symbols. Lanterns are hung at the entrance gates of the houses. The bright orange Cempasúchil , or Flor de Muertos , Flower of the Dead ' Upright Marigold a Tagetesart ( Tagetes erecta ), along with marigolds and yellow chrysanthemums designed as a reception carpet and guide for the body from the house to the cemetery, so that these safe for family celebration Find. It is believed that the deceased can best recognize the colors orange and yellow.
On the night of All Saints' Day the arrival of the dead children, the Angelitos , the little angels, is expected . After the souls of the deceased adults were also received in the house on the night of November 2, the deceased will be bid farewell in the cemeteries. Food brought along is eaten there, there is drinking, music and dancing. At midnight, the time has come for the dead to return to the afterlife. The feast is over until the dead return next year.
Pop Culture
The computer game Grim Fandango , released in 1998, is set on the Mexican Day of the Dead. In the American animated film Manolo and the Book of Life , released in 2014, Santa Muerte and Xibalbá visit San Angel on the day of the dead.
In the 2015 film James Bond 007: Specter , the opening scene shows a parade in Mexico City on the Day of the Dead. Due to the high level of interest generated by the film, the government decided to organize such a parade to promote Mexican culture. "We had to invent a carnival for the Day of the Dead," said Mexican Tourism Minister Enrique de la Madrid. "After the James Bond film, the tourists would otherwise have come to see the parade and would not have found it." 250,000 people took part in the parade on October 29, 2016.
In the animated film Coco - Alive Than Life! of Pixar Animation Studios, the plot is based on the day of the dead.
The 2018 concept album Corrido de la Sangre by The Tiger Lillies is dedicated to the day of the dead.
In the video game Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) from the Tomb Raider series, action hero Lara Croft gets into the middle of the day of the dead celebrations in a small town on the Mexican island of Cozumel at the beginning of her adventure.
Web links
- Día de los Muertos - Guests from the realm of the dead ( Memento from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead
- The Day of the Dead - Día de los Muertos
Individual evidence
- ^ Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead. In: ich.unesco.org. Retrieved November 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Logan Ward: 10 Things to Know About the Día de Muertos. In: National Geographic Germany. October 27, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Peter Temel: Mexico City imitates the parade of the dead from Bond film. In: kurier.at. October 29, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Played: Shadow of the Tomb Raider - With Lara into the Mayan apocalypse. In: ingame. Retrieved August 3, 2018 .