Day of the Dead Journeys of the Spirits
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Mexico the day of the dead or el dia en que la muerte muera
In Oaxaca, Mexico I enjoyed the festival “El Dia de los Muertos” the day of the dead. If any one had told me I would be visiting graveyards I would have thought them mad. We went to Xoxocatland pronounced Ho Ho Catlan to the new graveyard and the old graveyard (Panteones) where families vigilated at the graveside of their loved ones. At first it felt very intrusive but in actual fact, it is not. The families talk to their departed, feast on chocolate and tamales and drink Mezcal and offer you some if you show a particular interest in their grave. They take a long time to decorate these graves and, while it is a sombre religious time, it is also a fun time too. Lots of people dress up in skeleton and ghost like costumes for the trip. In the afternoon there was a parade of ghosts and ghouls with many an unsightly scar. The children dress up and hold up lanterns for sweets and if they are lucky for pennies too. The town has a particular buzz about it. There were beautiful tapetes de arena – Sand drawings: Altares-altars of sand.chocolate and bread.We also went to Etla to visit graves and San Augustin. Strangely Oaxaca graves are very different. The rich are buried in a kind of cavern where there is just a headstone and the bodies are in a narrow concrete box and lined up along the wall. The story is that in ancient days when bodies were dug up they found scratch marks on the coffins denoting that many people were buried alive. This scared the citizens of Oaxaca and they wanted to be buried in such a way that they could get out of the coffin if necessary. They were therefore buried vertically in the coffins so that in the cavern knocking would be heard and they could kick their way out of the coffin whereas underground it would be more difficult with all the earth piled up on top of them. Now, of course, it is concrete and you would not be able to kick your way out but presumably we are more careful about when we bury someone!! The people take flowers marigolds, mezcal and dare to cross the border of the living to slowly enter the threshold of death and discover a new world where flowers pictures tamales moles mezcales candles and Mariaches await the ones who have gone before only toreturn and relieve even if it is only for a few hours the pain and the loneliness of their beloved ones. Hear them sing cry songs with a broken heart and set free the spirit.You might even recognise one of the persons in the tomb portraits walking beside you.The death is only the end of the person in this world nor is it only the separation of the body and the soul. Death is a spirit.
Oaxaca has many sides to it. i beautiful city with cobbled streets and brightly coloured buildings. ladies wearing peasant white blouses with stunning embroidery. Beaches with world class surfing waves in Puerto Escondido and Puerto Angle and mountains with little villages like Benito Juarez in the valleys.
