![]() But the most authentic celebrations take place in Mexico. For more than a dozen years, the New York-based nonprofit cultural organisation Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders has staged the city’s largest Day of the Dead celebration. Thanks to recognition by UNESCO and the global sharing of information, Día de los Muertos is more popular than ever - in Mexico and, increasingly, abroad. Draped around altars and in the streets, the art represents the wind and the fragility of life. Papel picado isn’t used exclusively during Day of the Dead, but it plays an important role in the holiday. Artisans stack coloured tissue paper in dozens of layers, then perforate the layers with hammer and chisel points. The literal translation, pierced paper, perfectly describes how it’s made. You’ve probably seen this beautiful Mexican paper craft plenty of times in stateside Mexican restaurants. Many revelers wear shells or other noisemakers to amp up the excitement - and also possibly to rouse the dead and keep them close during the fun. People of all ages have their faces artfully painted to resemble skulls, and, mimicking the calavera Catrina, they don suits and fancy dresses. Dressing up as skeletons is part of the fun. Pressed in molds and decorated with crystalline colours, they come in all sizes and levels of complexity.ĭrinks, including pulque, a sweet fermented beverage made from the agave sap atole, a thin warm porridge made from corn flour, with unrefined cane sugar, cinnamon and vanilla added and hot chocolate.ĭay of the Dead is an extremely social holiday that spills into streets and public squares at all hours of the day and night. Sugar skulls are part of a sugar art tradition brought by 17th-century Italian missionaries. The bones might be arranged in a circle, as in the circle of life. Pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, is a typical sweet bread (pan dulce), often featuring anise seeds and decorated with bones and skulls made from dough. Some families place their dead loved one’s favorite meal on the altar. At least that’s the traditional belief in Mexico. You work up a mighty hunger and thirst traveling from the spirit world back to the realm of the living. In 1947 artist Diego Rivera featured Posada’s stylised skeleton in his masterpiece mural “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park.” Posada’s skeletal bust was dressed in a large feminine hat and Rivera made his female and named her Catrina, slang for “the rich.” Today, the calavera Catrina, or elegant skull, is the Day of the Dead’s most ubiquitous symbol. “ Todos somos calaveras,” a quote commonly attributed to Posada, means “we are all skeletons.” Underneath all our manmade trappings, we are all the same. Posada dressed his personification of death in fancy French garb and called it Calavera Garbancera, intending it as social commentary on Mexican society’s emulation of European sophistication. In the early 20th century, Mexican political cartoonist and lithographer José Guadalupe Posada created an etching to accompany a literary calavera. You’ll find these clever, biting poems in print, read aloud and broadcast on television and radio programs. These literary calaveras eventually became a popular part of Día de los Muertos celebrations. The skulls have literary rootsĬalavera means “skull.” But during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, calavera was used to describe short, humorous poems, which were often sarcastic tombstone epitaphs published in newspapers that poked fun at the living. ![]() The smoke from copal incense, made from tree resin, transmits praise and prayers and purifies the area around the altar. ![]() Scattered from altar to gravesite, marigold petals guide wandering souls back to their place of rest. Marigolds are the main flowers used to decorate the altar. If one of the spirits is a child, you might find small toys on the altar. As such, they’re loaded with offerings - water to quench thirst after the long journey, food, family photos and a candle for each dead relative. These aren’t altars for worshipping rather, they’re meant to welcome spirits back to the realm of the living. The centerpiece of the celebration is an altar, or ofrenda, built in private homes and cemeteries.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |