How do people in La Manzanilla celebrate and pay homage to their dead? For one the yearly ritual starts a few weeks before the big day, every family is busy with the construction of Coronas handmade out of plastic or paper flowers, these serve as decoration for the graves.
Another way you know Dia de Muertos is coming soon is because El Panadero starts offering Pan de Muerto for sale, this a traditional artisan bread that is usually shared with the lost ones by placing it on their altars, graves and breaking bread with the rest of the family.
All day today you will see crowds of people walking out to the Cementerio to place their Coronas and clean the graves of their loved ones. For some the celebrations and activities start on the first of November, that day is reserved for Las almas inocentes which means this is when we mourn children and those who were very young when they passed.
This year more than other we can observe various activities in town all allusive to Dia de Muertos, more than a few years a go, it makes us all so very happy that despite the rapid change of our surrounding cultural environment we can rescue our ancient practices and adapt them to make them our own and regain our own cultural identity as well as never forgetting the identity of those who have left this world before us...
Students of the third grade pose after their performance in La Quema del Mal Humor. This is a symbolic practice of burning bad humor and negative energy away, usually performed during carnival in other parts of the country.
In this image we can see a couple of Coronas and flowers placed on the graves early.
Every family uses their creativity to decorate their loved ones resting place.
Socorro dressed as La Catrina, behind her one of the many altars mounted
by the students of Miguel Hidalgo High school in el Jardin last night.
As motivation for the students the High school conducts a contest and the altar that is most creative but manages to incorporate all the symbolic offerings gets a price. Some on the elements the judges look for are 7 levels that represent the ascent to heaven, salt crosses to purify the body, an arch for the soul to enter this plane, the colors orange and purple that represent death and life, etc...
Pedro "Piedritas" resting in his chair like he used to all the time drinking a Coca cola. RIP.
Our beautiful angel Marianita, here her friends from school
put together a slide show presentation of some of her happy moments. RIP.
The night ended with dancing, drinking and celebrating the dead. Just the way they would of liked to celebrate if they were still here with us.
If you missed all of this, don't worry it's not too late! Tonight there will be live music in el Jardin, a Reggae music band from Monterrey is playing "Viento Roots"!!! So go join in la fiesta de los muertos...
!QUE VIVAN LOS MUERTOS!
(in loving memory of Vicky)
Special Thanks to:
Sophia Rutherford,
Irlanda Rutherford,
Eloy Soto Contreras,
Preparatoria Regional de
Cihuatlan Modulo M. Hidalgo.
Nice work, I learned a lot as usual. Gracias
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the reggae band was great in the jardin but not much appreciated in our residential neighborhood on Sunday night until late at night.
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