posted on October 16, 2003 03:59:35 PM newTell us the story Prof....
Well, let's see...every town in Mexico does it a little bit differently.The little Sonoran town where I have family is the one I'm most familiar with. Things begin at home on November first, All Saints day. On this day dead children are honored, and it has always been explained to me that the kids get honored along with the saints because they are pure in heart and soul also. A home altar is set up for the kids who have passed away. At my cousin's ranch house outside of town, they have a permanent altar, which has pictures of children who have died going back as far as photography allows, and the names of kids who died painted on terra cotta tiles set into the altar plaster for those who passed away before photography was common. The spirits of kids who died 300 years ago will be honored, along with their cousins who are only recently deceased.The altar will be set up anew each year in some homes, in ours it's permanent so it gets a fresh coat of yesso, or thin plaster and paint. It is decorated with votive candles and the special flowers of the day of the dead. These are a type of marigold that, if you were in Mexico right now, you would see truckloads of them on the highways and fields full of them being cut for Nov. 2. The flowers are said to have a special appeal to the spirits of the dead, and help them find their way back home. The special observance for the children is done at home on the first. This is also the day when lots of family will begin to arrive. We'll have relatives from all over Mexico and the US. My oldest daughter is coming home from the east coast next week, and she'll drive down with with my younger kids and me. My wife will not be going this year due to commitments, and she is not happy about it!
During the day on the first, the old ladies of the house will also be baking special breads, candies and making special tamales that are only made at this time in our area. They are made of flour ground from a variety of red corn, and the tamales come out pink.
On the second, we'll start the day at Mass in town, then the men will go to the Panteon (cemetery) armed with brooms and rakes and shovels and paint and a sack of cement, all for patching and cleaning and getting the tombs in the family plot repaired and spruced up. The women will arrive later with flowers and candles and pictures of our loved ones and put the final touches on the graves. At that point, we'll usually go home to rest a bit, because at 6 in the evening, the church bells will begin ringing to call the dead, and they will ring every few minutes, all night long, until sunrise the next day. After it is well and truly dark, there will be a procession of all the people beginning in the town plaza and walking in candle light to the cemetery. The old men from there still know the indian chants that have been used since prehispanic times. The rest of us will sing himnos (hymns), say prayers or recite the rosary, each according to his own feelings. We'll bring with us plates of food and baskets of treats, and licuados and horchata for the kids to drink and bottles of Bacanora, which is a variety of homemade tequila that is produced in the nether reaches of the Sierra Madre mountains. I have never been able to figure out where the Bacanora comes from. It is said that it cannot be bought, and is only obtained as a gift. Anyhow, we must have lots of friends because there's always plenty of it! At the cemetery we'll pray, sing, eat, light firecrackers and drink with the spirits of our loved ones until sunrise, happy to be with them once again on this special day.
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In this world of sin and sorrow, there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. -- H.L. Mencken
posted on October 16, 2003 04:50:10 PM new
Thank you for sharing that. As someone that comes from a miniscule family with no sense of history and the sole tradition of an arguement on every major holiday I am fascinated with family and cultural traditions. I am hoping that I get my new ID in time so that I can go down to TJ for the celebrations there wthout dealing with customs/immigration hassls when returning (apparently they feel that citizenship expires when your ID does ).
Is the tradition of laying out a table of the favorite foods of the deceased a regional thing or is that also part of the overall tradition. I know that some of my friends do that (one tells hilarious stories of sneaking treats from the table only to become the victim of latenight "pranks" from his grandmother pretending to be the spirit of his late grandfather coming to get him for eating his favorite treats) but I did not see it mentioned in the traditions of your family.
When you return from your trip, please bring pictures!!
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 16, 2003 06:43:57 PM new
I didn't make it very clear, sorry. The food that is prepared all day on the 1st is then carried in the procession to the cemetary. There are favorites taken for lots of the dead."tia Ofelia really liked these biscochitos, don't forget to give her some", "your Abuelito's brother Amarante liked to eat a peach with his Bacanora after dinner, make sure he gets a peach" and so forth, it's a huge picnic,with portions of everything laid out for the dead. This is a pan-Mexican custom I think...My family has been in the SW US and N. Mexico for 300 years give or take, there are lots of us, and we are all very close in one way or another...it can be a burden at times, but we are all here for each other in times of need, grief, and celebration. That's the real blessing. I hope you get to TJ for los Muertos
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In this world of sin and sorrow, there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. -- H.L. Mencken
posted on October 17, 2003 06:29:03 AM new
About nooses in the US
Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
posted on October 17, 2003 03:53:40 PM new
Nooses never made think first of African Americans. I always went back farther...Salem witches. Some of them were supposedly related to me though I hold no grudges. I realize that was a different time and people made some major mistakes.
Thanks for the description of the Day of the Dead. It always intrigued me, but I wasn't aware of the whole story.
("Half-hanged Mary" was Mary Webster, who was accused of witchcraft in the 1680's in a Puritan town in Massachusetts and hanged from a tree - where, according to one of the several surviving accounts, she was left all night. It is known that when she was cut down she was still alive, since she lived for another fourteen years.)
My body of skin waxes and wanes
around my true body,
a tender nimbus.
I skitter over the paths and fields
mumbling to myself like crazy,
mouth full of juicy adjectives
and purple berries.
The townsfolk dive headfirst into the bushes
to get out of my way.
My first death orbits my head,
an ambiguous nimbus,
medallion of my ordeal.
No one crosses that circle.
Having been hanged for something
I never said,
I can now say anything I can say.
Holiness gleams on my dirty fingers,
I eat flowers and dung,
two forms of the same thing, I eat mice
and give thanks, blasphemies
gleam and burst in my wake
like lovely bubbles.
I speak in tongues,
my audience is owls.
My audience is God,
because who the hell else could understand me?
Who else has been dead twice?
The words boil out of me,
coil after coil of sinuous possibility.
The cosmos unravels from my mouth,
all fullness, all vacancy.
posted on October 17, 2003 04:45:47 PM new
Thank you profe, that is a very interesting tradition.
Our (the Catholic church) I grew up in, does the All Saints Day, and the All Souls Day, used to be, not sure any more since I quit the church, was the Sunday following All Hallow Eve, which this year would be Nov 2. They have a 'special' Mass, but that is all.
Your tradition sounds much more interesting and all the family there, it must be nice
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posted on October 17, 2003 04:55:17 PM new
Nice story...
Sounds sort of like we did, when I was growing up, every fall at our family cemetery... We would all meet there, clean the cemetery and then have a dinner there and just share memories....
posted on October 17, 2003 05:26:43 PM new
Even dead people can get a sweet tooth : ) - It was to appease the spirits that wandered the earth that day so that they would not haunt (or Trick) you.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on October 18, 2003 02:26:31 PM new
The Day of the Dead candies and sweet breads are made into the shapes of skulls and skeletons. It isn't meant to be scary or spooky. It's our way of both acknowledging death as part of the circle of life, and smiling in it's face.
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In this world of sin and sorrow, there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. -- H.L. Mencken
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