Dia De Muertos

Day of the Dead
The Day of the Dead is a Mexican celebration that honors Hispanic origin the dead on November 2, starting from November 1, coinciding with the Catholic celebrations of All Souls Day and All Saints.
It's a Mexican holiday, which is also celebrated in some Central American countries, and in many communities in the United States, where there is a large Mexican and Central Americanpopulation. UNESCO has declared the Mexican holiday as Intangible Cultural Heritage mankind.1 Dead Day is a day celebrated in Brazil, as two Souls Day, but the holiday does not have the same roots that pre-Hispanic Mexican holiday.
The origins of the celebration of the Day of the Dead in Mexico predate the arrival of the Spanish. There are records of Mexican ethnic celebrations, Maya, Purepechaand Totonac. The rituals that celebrate the life of the ancestors in these civilizations are made from at least three thousand years ago. In the pre-Hispanic era it was common practice to keep skulls as trophies and display them during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth.
The festival that became the Day of the Dead marked the ninth month of the Aztec solar calendar, near the beginning ofAugust, and was celebrated for an entire month. The festivities were presided over by the goddess Mictecacíhuatl, known as the "Lady Death" (currently related to "Catrina", José Guadalupe Posada character) and wife Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of the land of the dead. The festivities were dedicated to the celebration of children and the lives of deceased relatives.
Life and death are an iconic symbolthat has caused admiration, fear and uncertainty to humans throughout history. For many years, different cultures have generated beliefs about death that have successfully developed a series of rituals and traditions either to worship, honor, frighten and even to mock her. Mexico is a country rich in culture and traditions, one of the main aspects that make up their identity as a nation is theconcept we have about life, death and all the traditions and beliefs that revolve around them.
However, it is noteworthy that this celebration is for all Mexicans because, despite being a party that has become a national symbol and as such is taught (education) in the country's schools, There are many families who are more attached to celebrate "All Saints Day" as they do in other Catholic countries.Linked with this is the strong influence of the United States that, at least in border areas, is evidenced by the presence of the holiday known as Halloween, which is celebrated every year more often and in a greater number of households. That is also why there is a concern among Mexicans themselves wanting to preserve the Day of the Dead as part of Mexican culture on other similar celebrations.But many Mexicans believe that the day of the dead to be a syncretic party is capable of living and adopt other non-traditional festivities healthily, allowing the use of disguises, without diminishing its cultural importance and not jeopardize their existence in Mexico .
The celebration in Prehispanic
Painting "La Catrina" on one of the streets of Guaymas, Mexico.
For ancient Mesoamericans,death had no moral connotations of the Catholic religion, in which the ideas of hell and paradise are used to punish or reward. On the contrary, they believed that the directions for the souls of the dead were identified by the type of death that they had, and not by their behavior in life.Thus, the addresses may take the dead are:
The Tlalocan or paradise of Tlaloc, god of rain. This site isdirected those who died in circumstances related to water: the drowned, those who died as a result of lightning, those who died from diseases such as gout or dropsy, scabies or buboes, as well as children sacrificed to the god. The Tlalocan was a place of repose and abundance. Although usually cremated the dead, the predestined to Tlaloc were buried, as the seeds to germinate.The Omeyocan paradise of...