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| The Catrina |
the Aztecs, Mayan, Toltecs, almost all the tribes, they believed in a place named Mictlan or Xilbaba, a place where all the people who died in a natural way had to arrive, according the ancient mythology the spirit of the deads should start a journey through four years and nine places to arrive to the Mictlan. the first place is the Itzuintlan (land of the dogs), this place is populated by Xoloitzcuintles, where the deceased has to cross the Apanohuayan river, quite similar to the Greek mythology, in order to cross the river, the dead man required the help of the dog, the second place was the Tepetl Monamicyan (where the hills collides) the journey through the Mictlan was hard, in this place the deads has to crossed between these two hills without being crushed, the third place was Itztepetl (the hill of obsidian) a place of sharpened stones that tear away the corpses when they have to climb to continue the journey, the fourth place was the Itzehecayan (the place of the obsidian wind) a solitary frozen place, the fifth was the Pancuecuetlacáyan (place where the people fly) the last hill of the Itzehecayan, a desert where the frozen winds ripped out the corpses, the sixth was Temiminaloyan, a place where the deads has to fight to not get stabbed and bleed, the seventh was Telloyocualoyan (where the hearts is devoured), in this place wild beasts open the chest of the deads and eats their hearts, then they was throwed away to the river, where they have to fight against Xochitonal, a giant lizard, the eighth place was Itzmictlan Apochcalocan (Temple of smoke) a place where a gray mist confuse the deads, inducing them to getting lost through nine deep rivers, and finally the ninth place is the Mictlan, the home of Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the dead, where at the end, they could release their souls.
There are other places for the deads, for instance, those who died in wars, or the women who died giving birth, they rest at Omeyocan, the place of the eternal joy, the people who died drowned or hit by a lightning, they rest at Tlalocan, the dead childrens, rest at the Chichihuacuauhco, there is a tree whose branches drips milk.
the ancient tribes celebrated the ritual of the deads since the middle of July until the end of August, since those days the people made offerings to the deads, they cut a tree, cut away the core, and placed flowers inside of it.
When the Spanish came, they imposed their own beliefs, changing the date of this celebration to the first days of November.
We arrived to Xochimilco after fifty minutes of driving, we're heading to the Dolores Olmedo museum, every year this place receives thousand of visitors just to see the altars of the deads, this year was dedicated to the city of Paris.
there's too many paintings to see in this museum, but I'll talk about it in another post, by now it's getting dark so we're gonna drive for about twenty five minutes and we'll take a little break off this celebration. we arrived to the community of San Agustin Othenco in the district of Milpa Alta, the countryside of the city, this year is the seventeenth contest of Cantolla's ballons, ballons made of paper, in the top of a hill many contestants from Brazil, Mexico and Colombia release their ballons, some of them reaches the seventeen meters!!, we don´t waste the chance to witness this show and see dozens of colorful ballons illuminating the night.
and now, the next stop is San Andres Mixquic, the place for excellence in the city to see how the mexicans still keeps their traditions leaving behind the Halloween that too many people in the city insist to celebrate.
In this town the people decorates their houses with the traditional altars to receive their deads, the 1st of November is to celebrate the spirit of the dead children, and the 2 of November is for the dead adults, let me tell you about these altars.
Most of the altars are made of three levels, that represents, the heaven, the earth and the underworld, to decorate the altars we're gonna need these objects, chopped paper in black, white or orange, this represents the union of the life and death, the favourite beverage of the dead, tequila or mezcal may be used, incense or copal, the corridor of the life and the dead and it also serves to keep away the evil spirits, a dish with salt to purificate the soul, a cross of lime on the floor that represents the four cardinal points, a walk of flowers to the altar to lead the way of the souls to the altar, this walk is made of cempasuchitl flowers (the flower of the four hundred petals), candles, toys for the dead childs, portraits of the deads, and their favourite food like rice, mole, seasonal fruits, a glass of water, bread of dead and little sugar skulls, that represent each dead of the family and a lantern, that serves for the deads to recognize their homes.
in the churchyard of this town the people also decorates the graves, and in the middle of the night of the 2 of November, they illuminate the whole cementery with candles and they join the deceased to take the dinner.
the next day we're heading to Coyoacan to visit another classic place that continuous with this tradition and I mean the house of the Indio Fernandez, for those who does not know this character, he was an important actor and film director in the begining of the twenty century, also the figure of the Oscar prize was taken out of him.
We finished this tour in the gardens of the National University, to see the monumental altar, this year many of the altars were dedicated to the Spanish-Mexican painter Remedios Varo.
So that's it, and once again thank you for your time!
the ancient tribes celebrated the ritual of the deads since the middle of July until the end of August, since those days the people made offerings to the deads, they cut a tree, cut away the core, and placed flowers inside of it.
When the Spanish came, they imposed their own beliefs, changing the date of this celebration to the first days of November.
We arrived to Xochimilco after fifty minutes of driving, we're heading to the Dolores Olmedo museum, every year this place receives thousand of visitors just to see the altars of the deads, this year was dedicated to the city of Paris.
there's too many paintings to see in this museum, but I'll talk about it in another post, by now it's getting dark so we're gonna drive for about twenty five minutes and we'll take a little break off this celebration. we arrived to the community of San Agustin Othenco in the district of Milpa Alta, the countryside of the city, this year is the seventeenth contest of Cantolla's ballons, ballons made of paper, in the top of a hill many contestants from Brazil, Mexico and Colombia release their ballons, some of them reaches the seventeen meters!!, we don´t waste the chance to witness this show and see dozens of colorful ballons illuminating the night.
and now, the next stop is San Andres Mixquic, the place for excellence in the city to see how the mexicans still keeps their traditions leaving behind the Halloween that too many people in the city insist to celebrate.
In this town the people decorates their houses with the traditional altars to receive their deads, the 1st of November is to celebrate the spirit of the dead children, and the 2 of November is for the dead adults, let me tell you about these altars.
in the churchyard of this town the people also decorates the graves, and in the middle of the night of the 2 of November, they illuminate the whole cementery with candles and they join the deceased to take the dinner.
the next day we're heading to Coyoacan to visit another classic place that continuous with this tradition and I mean the house of the Indio Fernandez, for those who does not know this character, he was an important actor and film director in the begining of the twenty century, also the figure of the Oscar prize was taken out of him.
We finished this tour in the gardens of the National University, to see the monumental altar, this year many of the altars were dedicated to the Spanish-Mexican painter Remedios Varo.
So that's it, and once again thank you for your time!
