Sunday Oct 29, 2006

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OK so I finally figured it out, and since I'm finally happy thanks in no small part to a giant lemon wink, a british band, a french goddess posing as a cat, three crazy ferrets and some of the most kick ass wonderful people in the world that I'm delighted to have on my friend list, plus the goodness of a chocolate 'shake...

So, for those of you who don't know it, we do have Halloween down here, which is good. The shitty part is that tradition is slowly dying and Dia de Muertos is becoming less popular every year. Fuck them pendejos who think it's old and corny. Enough ranting. These here are pictures from the altar here in my house.

You may or may not notice the pictures, That's my grandmother who died 20 years ago in her sleep, she had a heart condition. Then my grandfather who died only very recently after many years of agony. It was strange but I don't feel like talking about it now... The last one's my oldest uncle. He died of bone cancer 3 years ago.

So how does this work? I'll give you the sort version now. The real one will come later, not today, I'm too tired for that. We place these objects as offerings so the souls of the dead will come. There's food & flowers (I wish you guys could smell this altar, it smells great) and objects the dead person held dear, as well as pictures of them. Which reminds me...

SPOILERS! (Click to view)














The big drawing was made with pencil by one of my cousins, it's a copy of my grandma's oldest picture, I'd say circa 1917, no one really knows.

Have a nice day everyone

EDIT: Here's a a bit of an explanation on the day of the dead. Someone here already read this but I kinda liked the way it came out. Now I'm by no means an expert, this was a very brief explanation on the whole day of the dead... Enjoy

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Day of the Dead. It's a very old tradition. The ancient mexicans, in general, had three obsessions: The Sun. War. And Death. Then we were conquered and the ancient traditions merged with the new religion. They tried to wipe them out but it just didn't work. So, how does it work?

It's not a sad day, quite the contrary, on this day the souls of those who are dead come back not to haunt but to spend the day with us. We share food, music, images, memories... So it's a happy thing. Us mexicans often make fun of death. Very often. We have a number of phrases and she's mostly depicted as a smiling skeleton, maybe even a dancing one. We eat it in the shape of bread or sugar candy.

On the first day, which was today, the souls of children come to visit their families, along with those of people who drowned or perished in an accident. Tradition says they should be given water and bread, though not the fancy kind. This is also valid for the souls of evil people, so they won't harm anybody.

Tomorrow, the big event takes place. Every other departed soul comes back to spend the day with us. They are attracted by the flowers we build the altars with, which are quite fragrant and colorful, as you have seen in my pictures (more to come soon). They should be offered fruit, tamales, coffee, chocolate, a delicious thing called mole, cigarrettes and in some places, alcohol. As you can see these are all spicy, scented things. The dead can't eat, but they can taste and remember what it was like. Their favorite meals or candy or whatever, should be there too.

In the night of the 2nd, dawn of the 3rd day of november, the dead go back too the underworld, where they'll remain until the next year. In some places, people make these paths with flowers that go from their house to the person's grave. This is meant to help them find their way both when they arrive and when they have to leave.

VIEW 25 of 43 COMMENTS
kye:
Oh! smile

I loved my package! Take care and have a great weekend. I will be sure to send pictures when I get back!

kiss
fire:
That clip was awesome

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