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Festivals of Death

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Anonymous

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I was reading the MB Calendar entry regarding Halloween which reminded me of when I was talking to some Asian colleagues of mine recently. It occurred to me that here in Western civilisation we don't really have a widespread cultural event or festival that "celebrates" or is specifically about death. A Philippino colleague was telling me of how once a year there is a festival where the ancestral dead are commemorated, and everyone goes down to the local cemetery or whatever and tidies the place up, placing fresh flowers .etc.
In the west, the nearest we get to this is to commemorate it by putting on black plastic hats and fishnet tights (depending on your tastes) or sending little kids out for chcolate treats.
So, has anyone attended an unusual or exotic "Festival of Death", and does our seeming unwillingness to confront it once a year like other cultures hide an unhealthy attitude, a fear, of it?
 
In my branch of the Episcopal Church we celebrate All Hallows - it's a quiet time for reflection, sharing good memories and trying to let go of past hurts. Lots of eating simply together and lighting candles!

The main focus is loss (through death but also in general), change, memory and how we deal with it.

Kath
 
We do have remembrance day each year. It isn't really a festival of death but its as close as we get I think.
 
Vague on details, names, concrete facts etc. but I'm sure there's some kind of festival of rememberence in Italy (possibly Sicily) where once a year families visit tombs en masse and in some instances disinter bones so that they can be placed in smaller vaults built into walls.

I do know that on November 1st some Italian children are given presents on behalf of dead relatives so that they know that the deceased are still thinking of them.

Western society has a very unnatural fear of death, nobody confronts it but that could be because as we become more irreligious there are no longer any certainitys about what follows it . I remember hearing an elderly nun saying she longed to die and go to heaven because then she would be able to have the use of her legs again and go for lovely long walks, I wish i had that certainity.

I'm a typical product of the western atttude, atheist in belief but if I see a funeral procession the first thing I do is cross myself to ward off the evil spirits.
 
Can only think of a fiction example.

The excellent Rupert Thomson's book "The Five Gates of Hell" is based in a fictional sea-side town.............

"Moon Beach is a city built on the business of burial; funeral parlours are everywhere, low-rise like fast-food chains. But just as death is a way of life in Moon Beach, life there shows all the sign of corruption and decay. It is a place filled with colourful eccentrics and unworldly happenings. "

The inhabitants celebrate the dead once a year - a festival where people dress up in skeleton costumes, paint their skin pale blue and children eat skull shaped lollies.

A great read.
 
In Mexico, we don't dress up (well, unless children want to play Halloween). We go to the cemetary if we have a chance and play music and leave food and drinks on our family graves. If we don't go there, we build an altar with pictures and thing our dead one liked in life, leaving food and drinks for them, so they can take their essence again like when they consumed them in life. By the way, we do it on November 1st. Down here, people gives away candy, chocolate or cereal skulls with the name of our friends and family, some people eat them, specially children, but some other keep them as mementos. Most cities and small towns make the celebrations as a carnival, full of colour and music. The best one for me is on an island in Patzcuaro, state of Michoacan. The fishermen take on the lake on their boats, iluminated by the ligth of candles. They use sort of a net that resembles butterlfly wings, so they look like moths made of light, floating on the dark lake. Down here, this is the only time on the year when the dead can walk among us and we can talk to out beloved ones. It's a happy day.
 
Onix said:
Down here, this is the only time on the year when the dead can walk among us and we can talk to out beloved ones. It's a happy day.

That is such a lovely thought, I would love the chance to 'meet' my Grandad again and show him my sons.
 
Just to clarify something about Halloween, it had almost vanished off the face of the British consciousness along with Oak Apple day and Wassailing when the movie 'ET' ressurected it with the "Pester Power" of the kids who saw the movie and wanted to do the dressing up thing.
 
The Mexican Dia de los Muertos is getting almost as popular as Halloween amongst jaded Californians and Arizonians from what I saw and read while there. Of course, the celebrations have a very different focus, the Mexican one being the healthier IMO.
 
drjbrennan said:
Just to clarify something about Halloween, it had almost vanished off the face of the British consciousness along with Oak Apple day and Wassailing when the movie 'ET' ressurected it with the "Pester Power" of the kids who saw the movie and wanted to do the dressing up thing.

Not in North East Scotland. We had dressing up and 'Guising' and turnip lanterns for years before 'ET'.

Cujo
 
I agree that in small pockets it would have persisted, as per the "Soulcakers of Antrobus" reported in FT, but in the general population it would have become a quaint anachronism ie the "Padstow Obby Oss"
 
I don't think the Nort East of Scotland is really that small a pocket. I know it was celebrated in Aberdeen and up the coast as far as Peterhead and inland all the way up Deeside. I can't guarantee that it was celebrated all points in between but it seems likely.

Mind you. The word 'Guising' all but dissapeared after 'ET' to be replaced by 'Trick or Treating' and those few who remembered it assumed that the root was 'Penny for the Guy'.

Cujo
 
beakboo said:
The Mexican Dia de los Muertos is getting almost as popular as Halloween amongst jaded Californians and Arizonians from what I saw and read while there. Of course, the celebrations have a very different focus, the Mexican one being the healthier IMO.

They burn houses, don't they? ;)
 
beakboo said:
The Mexican Dia de los Muertos is getting almost as popular as Halloween amongst jaded Californians

It's popular here amongst the Latino community in Los Angeles, and everybody gets a kick out of it. At Olvera Street, which is a popular historical tourist draw downtown, families bring their kids,people are dressed in their Sunday best, and you can buy candy skulls and skeletons. The tsatske (sp?) souveniers of skeletons engaged in worldly activities like drinking in bars and driving cars are collected by anybody with a taste for kitsch. There are elaborate shrines with pictures of the departed, as the other poster said. Here's a link:

http://www.olvera-street.com/dia_de_los_muertos.html
 
Onix said:
Good to see they are keeping the fun part of it.

Yeah, there's definitely an element of fun and whimsey in the "Day of the Dead", but the shrines celebrating the beloved dead friends and relatives are very touching and express strong emotion. It's not morbid or spooky at all- it's a loving celebration of people thought to have crossed over somewhere else, but still present in some way spiritual.
 
Happy Day of the Dead!

And on this day, the Filipinos have a pragmatic solution to cemetery overcrowding....

A senior local government official in the Philippines has suggested that the dead should be buried in a vertical position because the biggest cemetery in the capital Manila has run out of space.
The head of the city's health department, Dr Florencio Baltazar, said the move would enable three corpses to be buried in the space currently occupied by one.

He said the idea would help ease the situation in the congested cemeteries, and should be considered by the city council.

The proposal was made as Filipinos gathered in cemeteries around the country on Saturday to remember their dead on the Christian festival of All Soul's.

Correspondents say Manila's four main cemeteries have become so crowded that only their entrances are free of tombs.

The problem is particularly acute in Manila North, which has been a burial place since 1904.

The 54-hectare site is currently home to "millions" of dead, said Dr Baltazar, who also administers the city's public cemeteries.

An average of 70-80 bodies were buried there a week, he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3232555.stm
 
The 1st November is All Saints Day for Catholics. Cemeteries are full of flowers - usually chrysanthemums, for some reason.
 
Day of the Dead, annual celebration to honor the spirits of the dead, observed in Mexico and other Latin American countries on November 2, although in some regions it is observed on November 1. The Day of the Dead—known in Spanish as El dia de los Muertos—coincides with the All Souls' Day, a holiday of the Roman Catholic Church to commemorate the deceased so they might “rest in peace.” According to popular belief, on the Day of the Dead the spirits of the dead return to commune with the living. Families leave offerings for these spirits, attend fiestas (festivals) dressed in costumes, and clean or decorate the graves of deceased family members.

The Day of the Dead is similar in many respects to Halloween, a holiday that also commemorates the spirits of the dead. Halloween originated in Europe and is now celebrated on October 31 in the United States. Some Day of the Dead ceremonies are sanctioned and presided over by representatives of the Catholic Church. Many aspects of Day of the Dead celebrations also reflect Native American traditions that predate the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the early 1500s. Observances vary from region to region, and often between different social groups within the same community. Some communities hold multiple Day of the Dead celebrations during the last week of October and the first week of November. In these elaborate observances, specific days are usually set aside for various classes of spirits, such as those of people who died violently or who died within the last year.

Most Day of the Dead activities take place in the home. Paths of flower petals and burning incense lead spirits to the houses of their living relatives. Many families construct elaborate ofrendas (offerings), tables heaped with gifts of food and drink for the spirits of the dead. Special loaves of bread known as hojaldra are baked for the holiday and are often included in offerings to the spirits. Other food offerings are selected with the spirit of a specific individual in mind, including dishes the deceased person enjoyed in life. The ofrenda is decorated with flowers, especially an orange or yellow flower known as cempasúchil (flower of the dead) and the mano de león (lion’s paw). Also, arches of palm leaves and banners of tissue paper cut into intricate designs frequently hang above the ofrenda table.

After the spirits have been given an opportunity to partake of the offerings, the celebrants eat the food. Leftover food is placed on the graves of dead relatives or distributed to living relatives and other members of the community. According to custom, ill fortune, such as sickness or death, may befall those who do not make offerings.

In some areas, especially in Mexico City, many celebrants construct papier-mậché skeletons and skulls. These are often arranged in tableaus that tell a story, sometimes a social or political satire. Skulls made from sugar are also common. In urban areas, ofrenda competitions and Day of the Dead dances, or discos, have become increasingly common.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761586298
 
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