The Tradition of the Day of the Dead By Ana Paty Lopez
http://www.alchemyguild.memberlodge.org/Resources/EmailTemplates/Alchemy%20Guild%20Bulletin,%20November-December,%202013/index.html
Since ancient times, death has been a subject that has always defied humans either by trying to fathom what might lie beyond this physical existence or because of the fear of what one might find in the afterlife. As a part of some cultural, philosophical and religious views, some people believe in a continued existence in a spiritual realm. That is the case in regard to pre-Columbian civilizations in Mexico.
Day of the Dead origins can be traced back to the Mesoamerican indigenous, such as Mexica (also known as Azteca), Maya, Purepecha, Nahua, Mazhaua and Totonac peoples. When conquistadors arrived in America, they became shocked at the indigenous pagan practices, and in their attempt to convert the Indians to Catholicism they prohibited those practices.
Mexica culture seemed to have been solid enough to preserve and pass on some of their knowledge and traditions - later merged with Catholic beliefs - leaving, among others, the legacy of what today is: the Day of the Dead Ceremony, that is, the testimony of the singular importance the indigenous people gave to life and death becoming ceremonial in nature because of their close connection with ideology, ancestral worldview, religion, art and agriculture, which were the foundation of Mesoamerican thought, incorporating, at the same time, the colonial evangelization.
Mexicas (Aztecs) believed that the direction the energy of the deceased one took was determined by the type of death he or she had suffered, rather than by their behavior in life. They believed that deceased ones needed food, beverages and some utensils which would serve them in their journey to the underworld where they would find Mictlantecuhtli, god of death, who along with his wife, Mictecacihuatl, dwelt in the Mictlan. They honored life and death – life, by amalgamating all that incorporated their most sacred way of living, and death, by performing ceremonies and rites to honor the deceased ones’ lives, often exposing their skulls as a symbol of death and rebirth. Death, therefore, was not an ultimate state of being but a passage to an upper life, and their ceremonies confirmed it by joining an exquisite mixture of colors, aromas and music where art, traditional cuisine, floral ornaments and incense were combined to honor the physical existence, and more importantly, the temporal state of death or passage of the beloved ones who had left this plane of existence.
In actuality, the Day of the Dead is an integration of Indigenous and Catholic thoughts, beliefs and traditions where the religious ceremony becomes part of the multicolored, joyful, pagan celebration to welcome their beloved ones who are allowed to “cross the bridge” and come to this plane of existence to partake, for two days a year, of the joyful music played by the mariachi and marimba, and the table lovingly prepared by the living ones to celebrate together life and death. The table, or tomb, is overflowing with the most wonderful traditional dishes, beverages, cigarettes, liquors, wines, or whatever the deceased ones loved when in physical form, as well as the delicious “bread of dead”, sugar/chocolate skulls, tamales and cocoa. The altar is adorned with characteristic yellow and purple flowers called “cempasuchil” and “cresta de gallo,” respectively, which are only used during that celebration each year, and crowned by magnificent crafts made from paper cut into wonderful and elaborate designs.
Day of the Dead celebrations, therefore, are not a time of sadness, as most people in the world consider it to be, but a joyful time to celebrate Eternal Life.
http://www.alchemyguild.memberlodge.org/Resources/EmailTemplates/Alchemy%20Guild%20Bulletin,%20November-December,%202013/index.html
Since ancient times, death has been a subject that has always defied humans either by trying to fathom what might lie beyond this physical existence or because of the fear of what one might find in the afterlife. As a part of some cultural, philosophical and religious views, some people believe in a continued existence in a spiritual realm. That is the case in regard to pre-Columbian civilizations in Mexico.
Day of the Dead origins can be traced back to the Mesoamerican indigenous, such as Mexica (also known as Azteca), Maya, Purepecha, Nahua, Mazhaua and Totonac peoples. When conquistadors arrived in America, they became shocked at the indigenous pagan practices, and in their attempt to convert the Indians to Catholicism they prohibited those practices.
Mexica culture seemed to have been solid enough to preserve and pass on some of their knowledge and traditions - later merged with Catholic beliefs - leaving, among others, the legacy of what today is: the Day of the Dead Ceremony, that is, the testimony of the singular importance the indigenous people gave to life and death becoming ceremonial in nature because of their close connection with ideology, ancestral worldview, religion, art and agriculture, which were the foundation of Mesoamerican thought, incorporating, at the same time, the colonial evangelization.
Mexicas (Aztecs) believed that the direction the energy of the deceased one took was determined by the type of death he or she had suffered, rather than by their behavior in life. They believed that deceased ones needed food, beverages and some utensils which would serve them in their journey to the underworld where they would find Mictlantecuhtli, god of death, who along with his wife, Mictecacihuatl, dwelt in the Mictlan. They honored life and death – life, by amalgamating all that incorporated their most sacred way of living, and death, by performing ceremonies and rites to honor the deceased ones’ lives, often exposing their skulls as a symbol of death and rebirth. Death, therefore, was not an ultimate state of being but a passage to an upper life, and their ceremonies confirmed it by joining an exquisite mixture of colors, aromas and music where art, traditional cuisine, floral ornaments and incense were combined to honor the physical existence, and more importantly, the temporal state of death or passage of the beloved ones who had left this plane of existence.
In actuality, the Day of the Dead is an integration of Indigenous and Catholic thoughts, beliefs and traditions where the religious ceremony becomes part of the multicolored, joyful, pagan celebration to welcome their beloved ones who are allowed to “cross the bridge” and come to this plane of existence to partake, for two days a year, of the joyful music played by the mariachi and marimba, and the table lovingly prepared by the living ones to celebrate together life and death. The table, or tomb, is overflowing with the most wonderful traditional dishes, beverages, cigarettes, liquors, wines, or whatever the deceased ones loved when in physical form, as well as the delicious “bread of dead”, sugar/chocolate skulls, tamales and cocoa. The altar is adorned with characteristic yellow and purple flowers called “cempasuchil” and “cresta de gallo,” respectively, which are only used during that celebration each year, and crowned by magnificent crafts made from paper cut into wonderful and elaborate designs.
Day of the Dead celebrations, therefore, are not a time of sadness, as most people in the world consider it to be, but a joyful time to celebrate Eternal Life.
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