Dia+de+los+Muertos

= Dia de los Muertos = El Dia de los Muertos meaning the day of the dead is a common celebration in Latin America, that has only recently been celebrated in Peru. In Peru however the day of the dead is known as El dia de los Difuntos or the day of the departed, and the celebration takes place on the first and second of November. This celebration is a huge festival that is like a giant birthday party almost, during the first day of the day of the departed they build shrines for their deceased relatives in the cemetery. On the shrine would be that person’s favorite drink, food, tiny things that represented what that person wanted or enjoyed in life, plus they would put special bread on the shrine. On the second day the family would return to the cemetery and play music while they ate and drank to continue the celebration. But the most important part of the celebration was to honor the relative and to remember them.

The family going to the cemetery to celebrate would talk about the person when they were alive and what made them special in life. The people of Peru and many other countries in Latin America and South America believed in honoring their ancestors even before the Spanish went there. What the people did to honor their ancestors and beloved ones was mummify them, then at specific times they took the mummies to a special place and set out offerings of food and drinks. But the idea of doing this to the deceased was evaporated when the advent of Catholicism came, so it was replaced by what we know to be as the day of the dead or the day of the departed. Aside from the food and drinks being offerings flowers are too, and the celebration can last all night in some of the communities. Also some people think that the dead relative will raise from the grave and join in on the celebration that they are having.

This changed life in that region because it made people see a different perspective on death. The new perspective that people now see because of this event is it’s not a bad thing to die in fact it should be celebrated when someone dies and most importantly don’t forget that person. It is a way of helping the departed get to the afterlife and to remember the special things about that person when they were alive. They help people see that death is not the end it is just the beginning of a new life in the afterlife and it also can help the people get over the loss of one of their family members. That’s how El Dia de los Muertos changed life in the Latin American and South American region permanently.

By: Kian Kennedy