Day Of The Dead




Today in Mexico, they are celebrating Dia de los Muertos. Actually, they were celebrating it yesterday too. In researching this post, I learned that the Day of the Dead is actually two days, and has been since the Spaniards merged the holiday with their own All Saints and All Souls days (November 1 and 2). In the same "if you can't beat them, join them" style that turned the pagan Winter Soltice celebration into Christmas, the Christian conquistadors took the the Latin American festival honoring the deceased from its original date in early August and merged it with their own holiday.

Because it happens right after Halloween and features a lot of skeleton art work, many people think of Day of the Dead as a morbid occasion. But as anyone who attended the excellent Dia de los Muertos festival at
Cheekwood last Saturday knows, its actually like a more festive take on Memorial Day. I'd post some Mexican music in honor of the holiday, but the fact is I don't have any. The closest representatives I have to Latin America in my world music collection are from Cuba and Brazil. So I'll give you this instead...

The Church - "Day Of The Dead" (mp3) from Sometime Anywhwere

Labels:


Comments:
Why does the female skeleton have Princess Leia's hairdo?
 
I saw your blog link on HWomb. I read several of your blogs, good stuff!

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought of "Day Of The Dead" from SA on this date!

I love dia de los muertos and that song always plays a part in it. I also always remember this favorite Camus quote about day of the dead: "children play with death...finding it funny...sweet & sugary".

It's my favorite time of the year, and probably my favorite holiday.

Thanks,
Daniel W.
 
Also: clicking on Piotr Kopish's name/link brought up some really undesirable results which I recommend any other readers avoid - very hateful stuff in my opinion. I thought it might have been Peter K's page, but...

dw
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?