Day Of The Dead
It's a day when friends and relatives gather to remember those who have departed. Technically, I think it's celebrated on November 2nd, but most people I know celebrate from October 31st through November 2nd.
Since we lived so far from relatives, I remember celebrating this holiday only once with my family while we were on holiday in Mexico. I was very young, and we went to visit my grandmother's grave on my father's side.
My father, knowing we were rapscallions (descended from the same) warned us that if we strayed off the path in the cemetery, snakes and ghouls would carry us off. --There was no end to my father's stellar parenting skills. LOL.
Obviously, we were terrified, me constantly glancing up at the trees, knowing a giant snake could easily drop down and whisk me away. We were the quietest, most well behaved children you could imagine.
Even when we reached my grandmother's grave, we remained somber. On the other hand, my parents, aunts and uncles, and assorted cousins were laughing and telling stories.
Día de los Muertos is a day of thoughtful remembrance and celebration. It's not a sad time at all, though if the death was recent it could be. For the most part everyone gathers to pay their respects to the dead and to celebrate the life they lived. We drink a toast to them, share our food and our stories about the deceased.
I like this holiday a lot. I miss my friends and relatives who have already gone, but I'd like to believe that on this one day, maybe they come back to reassure us they are well and happy--especially when we remember them.
We all die. What matters most is how we live.
***
Despite my father's simple solution for keeping us in line, fright night didn't have a lasting effect. To this day I love visiting cemeteries, reading the inscriptions on the stones and wondering what that person was like in life.
Surely, I can't be the only one who thinks like this. How about you?
Are cemeteries scary or comforting? Has anything weird ever happened to you at a cemetery (barring, of course, you didn't have a father like mine)? :-)
Happy Día de los Muertos
***
The blog tour continues on November 5th, but I'll be posting before then here on this blog. Stay tuned. More good stuff on the way.
Comments
I'm rambling ... sorry. I'm in a NaNoWriMo haze.
I enjoy old cemeteries, wandering around reading headstones. Never had a spooky happening.
My only scary moment at a graveyard was when I was a boy. A railway embankment ran alongside, halfway up of which was a very large tree. A previous generation had attached a thick piece of rope to one of its branches and knotted the end. It made a brilliant swing. You sat on it from top of the embankment and swang off into infinity and beyond, only this time the rope snapped and I nearly did swing into infinity as a grave stone zoomed towards me. I missed it by inches and landed in some very long grass.
But yeah, I also love to talk about loved ones who have died. It helps me remember them.
I think you can feel the sadness lingering at their graves, it's so palpable.
NH being such an old place, I'll bet you have a lot of great old cemeteries.
You're the reason he used to scare us so much. :)
Glad you didn't smash your pumpkinhead on the headstone.
When we were house hunting. one piece of land we liked was adjoined to a small country cemetery.
I like visiting them, but I don't think I'd want to live next to one.
ref: 10,000 graves
Wow! Have you ever taken a picture of that? That would be awesome to see.
~Lia
However, I would love to attend an old-fashion New Orleans funeral procession.
That's a shame about that poor woman who was killed leaving the cemetery. Guess she wasn't meant to leave.
Churches are the same way. The new ones have no character. I know it shouldn't make a difference as long as you meet, but I miss the personality of an old church and old cemeteries.
Good point!
The New Orleans funeral processions are similar to Dia de los Muertos in that it celebrates life rather than mourns death.
Joanna: Did you have a father like mine? :grin: That man gave me more phobias than I can count. Somehow I got over the cemetery one.
Incidently, Dia de los Muertos was the last chapter in the last draft I wrote.
The older I get the more I want to celebrate that person's life and not mourn his death.
Thanks for sharing your cultural customs!
I would love to read some of those headstones.
I'm with you though. Not after dark.:)