Discovery Atlas - Mexico: Day of the Dead

[alexacrow]

@MrPmd1 No ofense, but you know nothing about this celebration. Day of the Dead comes from a very ancient festivity called Miccailhuitontli that Mexica's use to celebrate honoring the gods of the dead who lived in Mictlan, This, I repeat, is a very ancient tradition that has nothing to do with Catholicism or Europe. The Spanish people brought the "All hollows eve" tradition, that's why the day of the dead was "moved" to november, so the convertion of the people to the catholicism was easier.

[enriquemayenzavala]

@MrPmd1 about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. The festivities were dedicated to the god known as the "Lady of the Dead", corresponding to the modern Catrina."

Some evidence point that in fact the celebration is very very old, in excavations in the maya zone or olmec zone there evidence of this celebrations about 3000 b.c.

[enriquemayenzavala]

@MrPmd1

Also you can see in wikipedia "The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to the indigenous cultures. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors have been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2,500–3,000 years. In the pre-Hispanic era, it was common to keep skulls as trophies and display them during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth.

The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar.

[enriquemayenzavala]

@MrPmd1 extract from the Encyclopædia Britannica Article: "Día de los Muertos holiday in Mexico, also observed to a lesser extent in other areas of Latin America and in the United States, honouring dead loved ones and making peace with the eventuality of death by treating it familiarly, without fear and dread. The holiday is derived from the rituals of the pre-Hispanic peoples of Mexico. Led by the goddess Mictecacihuatl, known as “Lady of the Dead,”

[Mrdeftoness1]

PAGANISM IS WRONG!

[ozvulcan]

@Mrdeftoness1 No Christianity is wrong, Paganism predates it by 10,000 years or more. Not to mention Christianity is nothing more than a plagiarized version of earlier pagan religions.

[sotoj159]

@Mrdeftoness1 how do you know?

[99cacahuate]

this tradition is about 5000 years old, the term AZTEC was made up by Alexander Von Huntbold and was used collectively to describe all the people who were connected to the triple alliance and the state. We are mexica, pronounce ( Meh-she-kah )

[5samoht]

haha im studying the day of the day in spanish class!!

[Chichiri520]

It's so wonderful how every spiritual tradition around the world has their own unique way of celebrating life.

[punksgodmother]

I just LOVE Mexico for their whole Day of the Dead Celebrations!!!! I respect this and wish Canada did the same!! Peace to you and yours!!!

[poli81883]

the day of the dead is celebrated all over Mexico but each region has its own characteristics. The most elaborate take place in Michoacan and Mexico City. Im from Baja Calfornia an its less important here. The reason my family celebrates it is because my grandparents came from Michoacan and taught us to celebrate this day.

[4evertrance]

This is an AZTEC tradition with 3000 years... NOT COLONIAL TRADITION NEITHER SPANISH, 100% MEXICAN

[mricardoteca]

this is not an aztec tradition...this is a purhepecha tradition....it's not the same....

[tangas1530]

@4evertrance sorry my friend,but is not aztec, is purepecha. viva michoacan.

[alexacrow]

@tangas1530 it is actually a MEXICA tradition called Miccailhuitontli.

[Yofher69]

i'm actually from this little town named cuanajo,,,, it is great to celebrate day of the dead, cuz you never forget your loved ones that have past away.

[outlawkelb]

that is such a great ritual :).

[mhaxt]

en Ecuador tenemos el dia de los muertos, pero no lo celebramos haci, solo visitamos las tumbas y rezamos, en mexico es algo mas serio, y muy bonito,In ecuador we have the day of the dead, but is not like this, we only visit the tombs of our dead family, and we pray, but we dont eat food or something like that, but this is a very nice ritual, sorry for my poor english, i love Mexican culture

[xenodude217]

Discovery Atlas - Mexico:

this is such a wrong time to post this series.

[richis109]

or possibly just the right time, people all over the world are blaming the Mexicans for the flu and this does provide some insight into their culture showing that they aren't all dirty people who live among animals.

[xenodude217]

You do have a point there.

[whllad6]

Does anyone know what date this is on? cool custom by the way

[bronan19]

ZOMBIE

[BinkieMcFartnuggets]

If H1N1 gets too far out of hand they might end up celebrating Day of the Living once a year instead.

[Graehaus]

That is cool, very interesting custom. Nice way to remember the dead.

[AgnieszkaD1990]

really interesting...

ive got one question, maybe someone will know the answer: what happens to all fruit and food later? do they burn it, eat it or what because i assume that the ghost of the person they are trying to envoke will not eat it...

[edith6363]

well dude this is what my mom tells me the living (us) eat the food and the spirit just smells the food. so there.

yes im mexican.

[enriquemayenzavala]

agree, the spirits only eat the "escence" of the food, and the relatives eat the "real one" i like to add that the food isn't casual, is the favorite food of the person in life... sea

[ridingisasport]

The family eats it after .

[AgnieszkaD1990]

Thank you ridingisasport for the answer :)

[defton24]

we eat it when the celebration is done some poeple says that some food is tasteless cuz the spirits took the escence but yeah we eat the shit of it !he he he specially candies

[enriquemayenzavala]

this is one of our more ancient traditions, more than 3000 years ago this celebration exist, we are not crazy.

[jason99kr]

that is not crazy. ..

[M1ndz]

i was just joking inrique im sorry if i offended you ;) i will remove my comment

[enriquemayenzavala]

non taken, i know this and other costumes of ours are really strange to occidental people, sea pal.

[lilcryingangel]

i wanna eat that fruit

[ublazzz]

@enriquemayenzavala Haha I'm trying to tell my friends that I'm not crazy too and we have the same thing today by the catholics and my friends tell me that we are in 2011 so I showed them this video.

[DarkFnh]

uhh

[PuppetXeno]

It's definately on my agenda to witness that one day. I've always been fascinated with images from this in films, documentaries etc. Can't wait for my sabbatical!