Celebrations

Our tradition of commemorating the dead is one of the most endearing and widespread in our country. It has an eminently religious character that not only has Christian foundations taken from the custom of “honoring the deceased faithful”, but retains many of the characteristics of the funeral ritual practiced by our pre-Hispanic ancestors. The rituals of “velación”, the placement of altars and offerings in houses and pantheons to pay homage to the deceased, are the result of a complex fabric that brings together several cultural traditions: on the one hand, the natives of pre-Columbian origin and, on the other , the Christian Spaniards who came to us with the conquest, as well as those of other groups from Africa, Asia and Europe who emigrated to Mexico during the Colony and, later, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Michoacán, the commemoration of the Day of the Dead is a solemn tradition that preserves that genuine manifestation of deep respect and veneration to the beings that materially no longer exist and to whom, through the offering, tribute is paid. The veiling ritual carried out by many of our indigenous communities in the region of Lake Pátzcuaro has had deep roots, and […]