Telling Tales Through Sight & Sound. Iluminación

Transcription

1 Iluminación Day of the Dead is one of Mexico s most important national holidays. Though often compared to our Halloween a lighthearted night for kids, spooky costumes, and trick-or-treating Day of the Dead is instead a deep, rich, cultural and spiritual celebration of life that engages people of all ages. Falling on November 1 and 2 the Roman Catholic All Saints and All Souls Days Día de los Muertos is both a heartfelt homage to ancestors and a community-centered event. For many Mexicans, death is seen as part of the cycle of life something that people accept, face, embrace, and even laugh about. In addition, many believe that the World of the Living and the World of the Dead live side-by-side. Once a year, when those two worlds are closer than ever, the dead are invited back to visit. And that time is called Día de los Muertos. In order to draw spirits of their ancestors home, Mexican families create a welcoming and familiar environment. They prepare and purchase special Day of the Dead foods, candies, crafts, and flowers, make home altars (ofrendas), and flock to local cemeteries to clean, repair, and decorate family gravesites and tombs. Among the iconic images that accompany these rituals are the calaveras, fanciful and cartoonish skeletons dressed in human attire, doing all-too human things. 1

2 The stunning finale to all this preparation is a moving, night-long, candlelit vigil (iluminación) at the local cemetery (panteón), filled with friends, family, marigolds, music, prayers, and if all goes well friendly spirits from beyond. To the resident of New York, Paris or London, the word Death is never pronounced because it burns the lips. Mexicans on the other hand, frequent it, caress it, they sleep with it, they celebrate it; it is one of their favorite games and their most permanent love. ~~~~ Para el habitante de Nueva York, Paris o Londres, la muerte es la palabra que jamás se pronuncia porque quema los labios. El mexicano, en cambio, la frecuenta, la burla, la acaricia, duerme con ella, la festeja; es uno de sus juguetes favoritos y su amor más permanente. Octavio Paz Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat quote from El laberinto de la Soledad 2

3 Glossary of Terms All Saints Day November 1, established in Mexico as the day to pray for the souls of deceased children, the little angels All Souls Day November 2, established as the day to remember deceased adults, the ancestors angelitos - the souls of the children who have died, literally "little angels" calaveras drawings, engravings, cartoons, carvings, or models of skulls or skeletons made to look like animated living people calaveras de azúcar - sugar skulls made for Día de los Muertos from alfeñique, a paste of icing sugar, egg whites, lemon juice, water and binding powder 3

4 Catrina (La Catrina) - Engraver José Posada s most popular skeleton character, a fabulous Victorian lady wearing a huge feathered hat cempazuchitl - a marigold, the official flower of the dead; the dramatic color and aromatic scent attract souls back from the dead to the ofrenda; also known as cempasuchil or zempasuchitl copalli - a scented resin used to make incense; widely used during Day of the Dead; copal is a local tropical wood also used for carving Día de los Muertos - Day of the Dead Día Todos los Santos - All Saints' Day iluminación - ceremony that takes place in the cemetery, where hundreds of candles are lighted to guide souls to their altars for the nighttime vigil Michoacán Mexican state located in the west central part of the Mexico; an epicenter of traditional Day of the Dead celebrations mole - a traditional thick black sauce made from a variety of ingredients including chilis, sesame seeds, herbs, spices, chocolate/fruit ofrenda elaborate family altars to memorialize the recently deceased pan de muerto special bread of the dead; a light, sweet yeast bread with many regional incarnations; some Mexicans make them as round loaves decorated with strips of dough shaped liked skulls, cross bones, flowers, or tear drops panteón -- cemetery papel picado - colorful tissue paper cut into intricate, lace-like designs Pátzcuaro small town in the State of Michoacán known for its Day of the Dead festivities; means place of the black stones, a place of entrance to Divinity ~ info@melodicvision.com

5 José Guadalupe Posada ( ) -- a brilliant Mexican engraver whose humorous images of cavorting skeletons mocked the antics of the living; his images have been replicated and imitated for a century Purépecha Indians one of some three dozen tribes native to Mexico, located in the state of Michoacán; the only local tribe who resisted the mighty Aztecs San Miguel de Allende a town located in the eastern part of the State of Guanajuato, Mexico; well known for the artist community and schools and as a popular destination for American expatriots ~ info@melodicvision.com