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RE: ADSactly Life: The Day Of The Dead

in #life4 years ago

The commemoration of the Day of the Dead is, indeed, a very characteristic practice of Latin America; not so of the USA or Europe, where it does not seem to exist as a cultural custom, and Halloween has been imposed, more as a commercial activity.
I think that the preponderance that the Day of the Dead has in Latin America is linked to the indigenous heritage, gift of death has a different conception than the Christian Western one. In Mexico, because it is a region where indigenous civilizations had a comprehensive presence, this conception survives strongly as a celebration. As Octavio Paz pointed out: "For the ancient Mexicans, the opposition between death and life was not as absolute as for us. Life was prolonged in death. And vice versa. Death was not the natural end of life, but the phase of an infinite cycle."
Although in the rest of LA a dominant Christian conception is practiced, underlying some expressions of the celebration of death that day with food, drinks, dances, etc., indigenous survival. As it happens in a town near Cumaná (Venezuela) called "Barbacoa".
I think it is very good that together with your family you visit your close dead to relive their memory and spiritual presence.
Thank you for your post, @nancybriti.

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I forgot to mention that just like in the film Coco, our dead are visited so that they know that they are still remembered, because a person never dies if it is always remembered. Hugs, @josemalavem.