My take on Dia de los Muertos
 |
Ever since I remember, my family has celebrated el Dia de los Muertos, nothing big just an altar and a prayer for our loved ones.
Now, my mom's humble altar consisted of:
-Pictures of all those departed souls that would come back that night and have a feast, even the pets made it to my mom's altar.
-sugar skulls.
-alfeñiques.
-papel picado every where.
-candles.
-copal (incense).
-pan de muerto; I had to get my own, otherwise I would've stolen it form the altar and pay the consequences.
-food; sooo much food that "never got eaten", mole con arroz, tamales, atole, alfeñiques, dulce de calabaza, and whatever else someone's favorite meal was.
-flowers; cempazuchitl (marigolds), cockscomb flowers.
-drinks; tequila, sotol, mezcal, beer, coke, barrilitos, and yes water too.
-Images of saints, the biggest one: San Martin.
I wish I could say that I grew up in a small town on the mountains, but instead I was born in one of the biggest and most populated cities of the world. And although we kept our traditions, ever since I remember we have been constantly bombarded by US traditions because; of course, Halloween was more exciting for a kid than a boring altar with a bunch of dead people; everywhere you go there they are: witches, frankensteins, pumpkins, etc. Nevertheless, my family never ever celebrated halloween, but neither did we ever celebrate at the cemetery, because it is so far away and so crowded on that day.
When I got old enough I decided to escape to the little town in the mountains of southern Mexico, yep, those have been some of the best years of my life. I rediscovered all the traditions that didn't make much sense in the big city before. The market place was exciting, but on the week before Dia de los Muertos it was a whole different world, the moment you step in the market the smell of the flowers and incense hit you in the face, so hard it takes you a while to recover from it, the place never looks so alive, so colorful, so incredibly bright and orange, there are stands for every single item that goes on the altar; you see papel picado and alfeñiques (those little animals made of pumpkin seeds) everywhere you look. Every one looks so busy and festive getting ready for the 2 night celebration. The whole town is impregnated with the smell of marigolds, copal and the sound of the Cathedral's bells.
It was then when I fell in love with this tradition.
Alynn-redhydrantpress (see my link just below)
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing a piece of your heart with us! You have made me fall more deeply in love with this celebration! (if that is possible!)
Great blog post!
Post a Comment