In short, Day of The Dead, called Dia de los Muertos in Spanish, Is a Mexican holiday that falls on November 1 and 2 of each year. On Day of the Dead, the boundaries between life and death begin to blur. Men, women and children of all ages honor and celebrate their loved ones who have passed away, participating joyously in a festival that has roots nearly 4000 years old. The holiday has spread in recent years from Mexico to America and beyond. It is now celebrated by Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and countless others, spawning a colorful and distinctive artistic tradition that continues to inspire. Day of the Dead art is alive with smiling skulls in kaleidoscope colors, doused in a deluge of decorative and detailed designs. It is a vibrant …show more content…
This makes it the opportune time to try and communicate with those who have passed away. However, Day of the Dead is also a reflective time. Death can and will be a tough thing to handle; to many people it’s a scary prospect, because no one knows what happens after death. We all have our own personal beliefs, based on culture, society, and family upbringings, as well as our own personal intellectual, emotional and spiritual inclinations. Some schools of thought invoke a fear of death as an inevitable part of the cycle of life. Nothing and no one is free from the fingers of death. It will, throughout our lives, affect us in all intimate ways, until we all ultimately meet our end. Day of the Dead art counteracts any feelings of doom and gloom relating to morality. Some artwork is often colorful and lively, sometimes whimsically macabre. Day of the Dead art is ironically full of life, To those of us who did not grow up in Latin American culture, Day of the Dead art rejuvenates our common western perception of death by presenting a view of the afterlife that is full of energy and spirit, one worthy of joy and celebration. It brings with it the hope that after death, there will still be another
In America, we react to death with the color black and many tears. Most of the christian religion is not as afraid of death because we believe that we will be in Heaven with God. Although this is true, family and friends still miss that person and that is what makes the event so internally painful. I think America should begin to celebrate death like this to decrease the pain one feels when they lose a loved
Finally, el Día de los muertos is much more spiritual than halloween. El Día de los muertos is a time for people to pray and honor their dead family members and friends, while halloween has no spiritual or religious importance. One thing that I learned from the video that I didn’t know before is that el Día de los muertos is a happy and joyful holiday. I always thought that it was a sad holiday.
Dia de los Muertos and Halloween can often be confused because they are celebrated within very close dates, but in reality they have distinct characteristics. Dia de los Muertos was originally introduced in Mexico with the Aztec Festival of the Dead, but the traditions have been tweaked over the years. Likewise, Halloween originated in Ireland, beginning with the Celtic Festival called “Samhain”. Now, the popular holiday, Day of the Dead, is celebrated from October 31st through November 2nd by visiting the graves of dead friends or family members. People who participate in Dia de los Muertos leave food, candles, incense, a poem, or a picture at the altar to honor the past lives of people they love.
Aside from being depicted in Mesoamerican artwork, the concept of death in Mexico also tells the story of the imposition of Catholicism on Mesoamerican civilizations during colonial Mexico. Artwork during this time period illustrates images of death, such as a deceased nun, a masked death, devil and devil dancers, and ancient decorated skulls (Carmichael and Slayer 1992, 36). According to Stanley Brandes, scholars often have a difficult time minimizing the role of the Zapotec natives while simultaneously emphasizing on the European origins of the Day of the Dead holiday. Much of the pre-Columbian antecedents steams from the iconography of ancient civilizations living throughout Mesoamerica. This includes its huge amounts of skulls and skeletons during the modern Day of the Dead rituals as well as the variations of the meaning of the skeletal depictions as it differs from region to region.
She argues that the mainstream media and its positive portrayals of the Day of the Dead has strengthened Latino identity and their sense of community, in addition to providing opportunities for the general population to discover more about their culture (Marchi, 97). With the help of newspapers, television shows, magazines, and other commercial establishments, the Day of the Dead has become an extremely popular holiday in the United States, familiar to non-Latinos as well. Marchi discusses the power of the media and its ability to attract wider audiences along with commercial sponsors to increase funds for spending (Marchi, 97). She goes on to offer reasons for the rise in U.S. media coverage concerning the Day of the Dead. Marchi claims this can be explained by the people
Many foods are made for day of the dead. That includes pan de los muertos (dead bread) which is a slightly sweeter version of sandwich bread and is sometimes decorated with pieces that look like skulls and bones. Additionally, there are sugar skulls. These are essentially sugar cubes carved into the shape of a skull and occasionally garnished with food coloring.
Death is a recurring theme in this book. Not only is death explained as being sad, but what is kind of weird is how death can be seen as sort of a happy thing. Dying, in general, is sad. But the whole ordeal of it can bring people together, or fix relationships that have been broken. In the case of Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom, Morrie and Mitch were separated due to the fact that Mitch cared more about his job than the most important things in life; love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and the main theme, death.
Both Tuesdays with Morrie and Night portray death as something to be feared, yet it changes the characters' lives. In the books Night and Tuesdays with Morrie, fear of death makes the characters act and think a certain way revealing that death changes how they perceive
On Day of the Dead, people go to markets to buy certain foods and items, some include las flores (flowers), El Mole (spicy chocolate), and El pan de Muerto (bread of the dead). People buy theses items because Day of the Dead is a very important holiday in Mexico and it usually takes 2 months salary to buy all of these things, it’s crazy. Along with people making altars, they must also prepare favorite foods of that loved one and also prepare themselves for the huge parties that they have on this special day. Halloween however, is prepared for by people going out and buying house items for the interior and exterior of the house. Parents also buy their kids costumes for this holiday to go out on halloween night and get candy.
Nowadays, many people wear items of clothing decorated with sugar skulls or skeleton prints, such as shirts, dresses, or leggings on Día de los Muertos. You can also wear shells and dance so that the noisiness "wakes up" the dead or even dress up as the deceased. •Some women also dress as Calavera Catrina in long, flowing, brightly-colored lace dresses paired with flower crowns and sugar skull makeup. •Sometimes, children dress in costume and ask people on the street for a calaverita (a small gift of money). Unlike Halloween, though, they don't knock on doors.
In America, death is seen as the final experience on earth, and a grave experience for all individuals involved. In Mexico, death is considered a natural rite of passage and a new aspect of reality. October 31, Halloween in America and The Day of the Dead in Mexico, is celebrated in both cultures. The difference is in the fact that Americans still refuse to recognize the reality of death during the celebration while Mexicans embrace dead loved ones while they celebrate. Although these differences are profound, both are rooted in history, tradition, and
The first day, called “Día de los Angelitos” (Day of the Little Angels), is dedicated to the souls of deceased children, while November 2nd is set aside for the souls of adults. In preparation for these days, families may clean their homes to welcome the arrival of the souls of their loved ones. Many people also visit cemeteries to decorate the graves of the dead with their favorite items and flowers. Graves and ofrendas are decorated with papel picado, photographs, cherished objects, marigolds (cempasúchitl), and skeletons made of paper or clay. Food and drink are placed on the ofrendas for the dead – people commonly believe that they can still enjoy the tastes and smells.
It is a day that is set aside to remember and honor those who have died, according to the University of New Mexico. That day represents the day before Lent and is celebrated as well. Another notable day is September 16th, which marks Cinco de Mayo the day the Mexican Military had a victory over the French in 1862. Cinco de Mayo is also celebrated in the United States more than it is in Mexico.
Humans learn about the simplicity of their lives and how easy that life can end in a blink of an eye. The constant thought of death is crushing and makes life seem pointless. Humans start to realize that there is nothing they can do to truly escape death, and death starts to be a big part of their lives. It surrounds the world in all aspects of life. Truthfully, it is tough to go a day without seeing, hearing, or thinking about death.
Otto Dix’s The War Otto Dix, a German expressionist painter started his art career at young age, while he was in elementary school. He became an apprentice to a teacher and studied art, later to move on to the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts as a young adult. Later on he volunteered to join the German military, and was eager when he found out he was going to become a machine gunner. The war was not how he thought it would be though, as he was traumatized by the scenes of the war and came back as a different person. His painting styles grew to a darker and more sinister outlook on life with a main focus on war that gave a deathly feeling.