The Day of the Dead

El día de lo muertos

Throughout history, the transformation of life into death has caused concern and anxiety, but at the same time it has been object of adoration and cult. Humans have developed feelings about death that have manifested in different rituals and festivities either to idolize it or to repudiate it. Before the discovery of America by Europeans, many people with their own concept of life and death existed in what is now Mexico, and one of those festivities has evolved into what is now called “El Día de los Muertos”.

The cult of death is practiced in Mexico since long ago, even before the arrival of Columbus.  In the old Aztec calendar, divided in 18 months, there were at least 6 days dedicated to the dead.

For the old Americans, death was not presented in a dichotomy of good/evil then paradise/hell, typical of the Christian church. On the other hand, they had the belief that the fate of the soul was determined by the type of death the person had, and not by their behavior in life.

The festivity that nowadays is known as the Día de los muertos, comes from an old Aztec commemoration of the ninth month of the year. According to the legend, the festivity was led by the Goddess Mictecacíhuatl, “la Dama de la Muerte” (Lady of Death). One of the practices conducted by these old pre-Hispanic people was to keep the skulls of the dead as trophies and show them during the rituals as a symbol of death.

The Día de los Muertos is a traditional Mexican celebration in honor of the dead. It takes place during the two days of November. Although the festivity is mainly Mexican it also celebrated in other countries of America and in the USA where a big Mexican community lives.

The most representative of this festivity are the colorful altars in which deceased relatives are remembered, the beautiful costumes with which people dress and the picturesque ways in which people paint their faces to look like skeletons, symbolizing the union between life and death.

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