Death is an aspect of life that all cultures must reconcile with, but how cultures reconcile with it varies. American culture tends to sterilize death and remove it from general conversation. The topic of death and the physical remnants of death are usually enclosed and kept as far out of sight as possible. In Mexico, on the other hand, death is both displayed and celebrated. Mexicans embrace death in both their spiritual and cultural lives. Although these two cultures differ on their approach to death, both celebrate October 31 annually.
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. The holiday is still most commonly celebrated throughout Mexico and Latin America. Halloween is on October 31st, and it is celebrated by carving jack o’ lanterns, going trick or treating, decorating houses with a spooky theme, watching horror
In Mexico they celebrate the holiday called Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on October 31st and it ends on November 2nd. While in the US we celebrate the holiday, Halloween on October 31st. I will be telling you the origin of these holidays. Along with their similarities and differences. Hopefully this will make you have a better understanding of these holidays along with helping you understand another country's culture. Now let's start…
It was also a time to remember the spirits of their ancestors and was transferred into the holiday “All Souls Day” or “Halloween”.
Halloween and Day of the Dead, despite their similarities, are very different. They are similar because they both have sugary treats and they are different because they are celebrated in different ways, and the preparation of the holidays are different. Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated in Mexico, and Central America where people celebrate their ancestors souls and bring them some of their favorite things to their graves and throw many parties. Halloween is a day when children go out in costumes to trick-or-treat for candies and other sugary items, people also setup decorations outside their houses that look go along with the holiday.
Although Day of the Dead and Halloween seem similar on the surface, they are tremendously different due to their way of celebrating with foods, decorations, and preparations. The more you learn about both holidays, the more you can see their differences. Not only are they celebrated on different days, but they are celebrated in different ways by many different people.
The Day of the Dead is a two day celebration that honors deceased loved ones. The two day celebration starts on November first and ends on November second. The first day of the Day of the Dead is dedicated to the deceased children. While on the second day, the deceased adults are honored and remembered. Carnival takes place in February. Carnival is celebrated for a few days, but the climax is on Carnival Tuesday and then ends on Ash Wednesday. “Holy week is
One of the things that Halloween and The Day of The Death differ is how it’s celebrated. Mexican people celebrate The Day of the Death by visiting the cemetery and decorate their graves with beautiful flowers. In America in a way Americans celebrate
Howard Schultz once said, “In times of adversity and change, we discover who we are and what we are made of.” In life, one starts to realize everything is not always peachy. Sometimes one has to go through patches of thorns before things start to look up, but in the long run difficulties in life turn out to make one stronger person. In the books Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, and Night by Elie Wiesel, two of the main characters are pushed to their limits and beyond. How these men react to their situation is both mesmerizing, and courageous. In the two pieces of literature being strong, love, and death all factor into how each of the characters deals with adversity.
There are many differences between el Día de los muertos and Halloween. One of these differences being the mood of the holiday. Halloween is dark and scary holiday, while el Día de los muertos is a joyful holiday. During el Día de los muertos, families buy foods to honor their lost loved ones. During halloween in contrast, candy is handed out to kids. 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.
Overall DotD and Halloween have many differences and similarities that people like and dislike from Chocolates, Skeletons and Costumes. It can be confusing but it shows lots of culture and what people like to celebrate. Comparing Day of the Dead and Halloween with similarities and differences. Many areas of the world celebrate Halloween in ways through Chocolate, Skeletons and Bread. Day of the Dead and Halloween are the most alike but also the most different. Easily from spicy to sweet and from scary to welcoming. DotD is a great holiday for Mexico welcoming the dead. For Halloween we dress up to try to scare the spirits.
Tomorrow we begin the month of October. October gives us a full month of colorful autumn and ends with the spooky day of Halloween. There are people who enjoy this holiday especially children and those who think it a pagan event. Personally I have always enjoyed Halloween just for the fun of it with nothing other than that. A kind of autumn celebration with carved pumpkins, colorful leaves and the ghosts and ghoulies just for fun. That is how I look at Halloween. Unfortunately here in Latvia they are not into this holiday and only children at school dress up but afterwards don’t go trick or treating and young adults enjoy going a bit crazy in the pubs in Riga.
Attention Getter: I’m sure you have all heard the children’s rhyme that goes trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.
What do you think of when you think of October? Black cats? Witches? Many people think of Halloween, but that is not the only holiday in this month. Two very important holidays take place in this month: Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. These are very different holidays, but have multiple similarities. People all around the world celebrate both of these occasions.
Halloween is an example of syncretism because the day is a mixture of a holiday called “All Hallow’s Day” which is a day of feasting and remembering the saints and the pagan holiday as the “Day of the Dead.” This has been an area of controversy in my ministry as recently as last week. I scheduled a day for our youth group to go to Worlds of Fun, and it was pointed out to me that this would not be an appropriate event for our church because of the Haunt event. I did procede with the event. We had ten new youth show up. They experienced a prayer and Christian unity for a day. To me, Christians are educated by the truth of God’s Word. Every day is a good day for Satan to walk the earth, not just on Halloween. Perhaps this discussion question