Tag: Catrinias

THE TRILOGY OF DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

October 31 commonly called Halloween, is actually “All Hallows Eve” the time to begin preparations for the days that follow. The children here in Mexico dress in mostly macabre costumes and run from business to bar to restaurant singing “Halloween, Halloween’ while holding out their sacks for candy treats.

Halloweeners

November 1st is “All Saint’s Day, a religious Holy Day of Obligation. It is a time to revere the Saints and pray to them for all the souls still in purgatory. Alters are erected to pay homage to departed loved ones. Favorite foods, flowers and pictures are displayed in the alter.

November 2nd is All Souls’ Day, graveyards and grave stones have been decorated and it is a time to commune with loved ones whose spirit is believed to be with you at this time. It is a time to celebrate their lives not morn them,

Decorated graveyard

It is also the day of the parade of Catrinas and Zihuatanejo did it up royal, unfortunately the route of the parade remained a mystery until late in the day. It was a huge event, complete with no crowd control but I did manage to get a couple of pictures.

Tap pictures to enlarge

Over the last few days I’ve been at odds with WordPress as I couldn’t get anything to up load. If they had just sent me a bill instead of cutting me off it would have been so much easier. Anyway all is well and from now on I can be more timely. Signing off KO

THE TRILOGY OF HALLOWEEN, ALL SAINTS DAY AND ALL SOULS DAY

This fall celebration is a fun time in Zihuatanejo beginning with All Hallows’ Eve, which we North American types call Halloween. So on October 31 the children dress in Macabre costumes and as darkness descends they run from business to business, bars and restaurants with sacks held up hoping for candy singing out Halloween, Halloween.

“Halloweeners”

All Saints Day is a day of Holy Obligation for the Roman Catholic population, a day to pray to the saints in heaven and for the souls still in purgatory. It’s a day to prepare ones alter to past loved ones and make their favorite foods, and to decorate the graveyards.

Alter

All Souls’ Day day is a time to reflect on ones departed love ones, to celebrate their lives, but not morn them, to honor them with alters displaying favorite foods and drink and commune with them believing their spirits are with you.

Catrina y Catrin

The Mexican people do know how to celebrate, loud and colorful. Here in Zihuatanejo they have a large parade of the the Catrins and Catrinas . These are the skeleton folks with beautifully, delicately painted faces. Throw in a couple of floats, a pair of Catrins and Catrinas on horse back and no crowd control and don’t advertise the route, but everyone knew where it would end, and you have a wonderful Mexican style celebration that everyone enjoyed and still managed to got home safely,

Still fighting with getting pictures placed, finally able to get these placed and can only hope they post. Signing off KO