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| Credit: Wikimedia Commons |
I hope you all had a groovy Halloween and are having an awesome Day
of the Dead weekend. Some of you may be asking, “What is Day of the
Dead?” To get the answer to that question, check out the short
documentary below. It’s an oldie but goodie since the narrator
seems to be well informed for the time it was made in (the 1950s). It
gives at least the basics of this holiday which is, contrary to many
of the people’s belief in my own Latino culture, similar to
Halloween although it has it’s own unique flavour. Speaking about
flavour, like on Halloween people who celebrate Day of the Dead hand
out candy, particularly candy skulls. Are they candy-covered, real
human skulls? Well, watch the video and find out! Speaking about
skulls, that’s one unique difference between Mexico’s holiday and
the U.S.’s (not to mention Northern Europe’s) holiday—whereas
Halloween uses a Jack-o-lantern as its holiday icon a skull serves
that purpose for Day of the Dead. Like Halloween, Day of the Dead has
ghosts, only most of them are the ghosts of loved ones invited in by
the living. But are these kindred spirits real? Again, watch the
video and you just might find out.
So, Halloween is
over, but not quite over if you consider traits that it shares with
Day of the Dead. After all, almost every culture has some sort of
ritual that honours their deceased in some sort of way. The
mythologist, Joseph Campbell himself said, as did the psychologist
Carl Jung before him, that all cultures share a universal myth, that
myth coming from something called the archetype. But I’m not here
to give a lecture on psychology or even mythology per se. I’m here
to share Mexico’s, my ancestral culture’s, Day of the Dead and
something else . . .
As I said, Halloween
is done, but not all of the celebration of the supernatural is over
yet. My newest book, “The Boo Brothers: Two Tales of Terror”, you
can say reads as a Day of the Dead story. After all, the title story
in this two-tale book has skeletons in it. So, if you missed
purchasing “Boo Brothers” to read for Halloween, you can still
read it to celebrate the season. And consider this my Day of the Dead
gift to you: you can have a copy of the book for free at Amazon! But
I suggest you go get it now because this offer only lasts until 11:59
PM Pacific Standard Time, Sunday November 4th!
How familiar are you
with the Mexican Day of the Dead? Do you feel it shares a lot of
elements with Halloween? Feel free to leave your answers in the box
below.
Until next time . .
.
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