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Alot of people have been asking what this is about .. so i decided yo make a blog on it to exsplain exactly what the holiday is about. After this i hope you get a better understaning of this holiday.
The celebration marks the day when the spirits of dearly departed loved ones are thought to travel across the dimensions to pay a visit to the homes where they once lived.
It is a time for remembering those who are gone with love and reverence, and for celebrating life and renewal.
Families honor their loved ones by telling stories about them and by preparing meals and beverages the departed used to enjoy in life.
The living relatives usually create a special altar in a designated area of the home and decorate it with items they believe the souls of the departed will find comforting, reassuring and welcoming at the end of their long journey.
The offerings - las ofrendas - displayed on each altar may include favorite foods, wreaths or petals of marigolds, candles and incense. The smell of burning incense – copal - and the light of numerous candles are intended to help the departed find their way home. The altar may also include items that serve to remind the living of the departed such as photographs, a diploma or a favorite article of clothing.
In addition to the altar being arranged within the home, family members also travel to the local cemetery. Here they will carefully clean and decorate the family gravesite in the days leading up to Nov. 2.
In some cases this may entail cutting down weeds, making structural repairs or giving tombs a fresh coat of whitewash.
The graves are then lavishly decorated according to local custom, and on Nov. 2, family members gather at the cemetery for graveside reunions that are always more festive than somber.
Picnic baskets and bottles of tequila may be brought to the cemetery for the purpose of toasting the departed.
The meals prepared for these picnics are spectacular, usually featuring tamales, meat dishes in spicy sauces, chocolate beverages, cookies, sugary confections in a variety of animal or skull shapes, and a special egg-batter bread called “pan de muerto,” or bread of the dead.
Pan de muerto, which comes in various sizes topped with bits of dough shaped like bones, is particularly popular. In some regions, bread loaves are molded into humanoid figures called animas souls.
All of these goods are destined for the altars or to help decorate the gravesite for Nov. 2 festivities.
A warm social environment is created by family members gathering at the cemetery.
The colorful setting and the abundance of food, drink and good company gives this commemoration of the dead pleasant overtones and is a way of recognizing the cycle of life and death that is human existence.
