One custom is to set the table also for your dead relatives that day. The believe is that the souls of the dead come back to our world for one day and setting the table for them is a way to show that they are still a part of the family.
In addition, many pastry shops produce Calaveras de Dulce, sugar sculls, which are given to each other as a present. Some even put the recipients name on the scull. When I first heard about it, I found it quite macabre but I was told it is a way to remind each other of the fact that all of us are mortal.I found it surprising that the 2 days are not celebrated in silence or dolour. The Day of the Dead is a colourful folk festival. The streets are decorated with flowers and bizarre symbols of death.
However, it should also be clear that customs vary from region to region. Most of them are of prehispanic origin and the Christian missionaries were unable to ban them. How is that saying? If you can't beat them, join them...
1 comment:
It's definitely true that every country and even region has its own customs and traditions.
The Irish light a candle on the night of the 31st of October in their living room and put it on the window silk to guide dead relatives back to their houses - because only in this night their ghosts can move freely between this world and the Otherworld (see also a post on their traditons on my blog: http://snail-on-the-road.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html)
And talking about Christians and Missionars and the like: the Pope in Rome sends every year a letter to the Archbishop of Dublin to tell him to get rid of the Irish Cross throughout Ireland - because the Irish Cross is a combination of the Cross and the Circle symbolizes the sun, which was highly valued by the Celts. So the missionars could not stamp out the old Celtic traditions and pagan worshipping cult and therefore the missionars decided to "combine the new with the old" and the Irish Cross was born!
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