According to the Christian tradition, which is accepted by many non-Christians and those who do not believe in God or are agnostics, during the two days of the year - November 1 and 2 - people remember the dead and connect with the dead in spirit: it is the feast of All Saints and All Souls. day. Not only memories but also faith in the afterlife and God’s reward give meaning to those days and to what we do then.
The first recorded historical traces of the feast of All Saints are found in the 4th century. From its beginnings, the Church once a year celebrates all the holy martyrs, moreover, and in worship (liturgy, Mass) mentions its martyrs by name. As the number of martyrs and other saints increased over time and it was not possible to list them all, the Church classified many of them in a calendar and commemorated them on a specific day. However, only a small number of saints were found there, which is why the feast of All Saints was introduced.
These days we visit cemeteries, where our loved ones who are no longer here with us rest. We do this especially for the feast of All Saints. Most of the day, most of the day we gather at the cemetery, and before that day we come to arrange the graves, clean them from the dirt caused by the weather, bring fresh flowers, most often chrysanthemums and light candles and with such decorated and decorated graves we celebrate the feast of All Saints. We go to the cemetery and visit the graves of our deceased the next day, ie November 2, on Soul Day, the day of remembrance of all our dead, but still less than we do the previous day.
On All Saints' Day and around it in many places around the world, including us, it is customary to remember your deceased loved ones, but the Mexican celebration is so special that in 2008 it was included in the UNESCO Intangible World Heritage List.
Dia de los Muertos, the day of remembrance of the dead, has been celebrated in Mexico since pre-Columbian times, but while it was once celebrated in early summer, with the advent of Catholicism the holiday was moved to late October to coincide with the Christian holiday of All Saints. the year of the twentieth century is also an official national holiday.
The dead are celebrated in Mexico for three days, October 31, November 1 and 2, with October 1 reserved for the memory of deceased children - Dia de Inocentes or Dia de los Angelitos - while November 2 commemorates the deceased adults. , Dia de los Muertos or Dia de los Defuntos.
Customs include decorating skulls, makeup in skulls (calaveras), songs and dances, Aztec puppetry, feasts with the deceased’s favorite dishes.
Particularly impressive visual record of the celebration of the Day of the Dead was left by the famous Russian director Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (1898-1948), creator of "Armored Potemkin" and the founder of modern film editing, in his unfinished 1930 documentary "Que viva México!" ("Cheers Mexico"), capturing the spirit of Mexican celebrations in its own unique way.
This great Mexican festival is associated with the veneration of the Holy Death, Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, death as a saint extremely popular especially among Mexican criminals, but about this ugly custom which the Catholic Church fiercely fights but still gained momentum especially in 21. century,
An interesting article.