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Celtic festival called Sowen. The Celts had an idea that the veil between the living and the dead grew thin around the fall harvest, also the Celtic New Year, allowing ghosts and ghouls to slip in. The Celts dressed up as monsters and goblins to scare off evil spirits and have a little fun in the process. A Weden Saint Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century. The Church incorporated some of the pagan traditions of Sowyn into

All Hallows Eve, observed October thirty first. The modern holiday of Halloween was first popularized in America by Irish immigrants, and developed from there into the spookfest we know and love today. Meanwhile, a version of the Day of Dead existed in pre Hispanic Mexico as far back as three

thousand years ago. By the fifteen hundred CE and the reign of the Aztec Empire, this had become a massive festival dedicated to the dead that was held during the entire ninth month of the Aztec calendar, corresponding roughly to late July early August. In as Tech mythology, the underworld is ruled by mctec asoulat, the Lady of the Dead. Her duty was to watch over the bones of past lives, which were also the source of new lives on Earth. Once a year, she would leave the underworld to check

on her living bones. The Aztecs welcomed the Lady of the Dead and her husband with this month long death festival, filled with offerings and dance, as sculptures of the couple portray them with skeletal faces and necklaces, dangling with skulls and severed hands. O. When the Spanish colonizers arrived in the fifteen hundreds, they brought priests who converted indigenous peoples

by the sword. Some of the old traditions surrounding the Day of the Dead got folded into Catholic observances of All Saints Day on November first and All Souls Day on November tecond. It's called religious syncretism when existing religious customs and even deities are folded into a new belief system. O. When the Aztecs and other indigenous Mexican groups fell to the Spanish, they were forced to destroy their temples and pagan idols and replace them with cathedrals and the Saints.

But the missionaries knew that a conquered people would have an easier time accepting a new God and new traditions if they fit into an existing religious worldview and ritual calendar. And they saw that the locals venerated the dead, so the Church looked for existing Christian holidays that emphasized communion

between the living and those beyond. All Saints Day and November first is a time for Christians to remember and honor fallen saints and now in heaven, and All Souls Day November two marks the time to pray for the souls of departed loved ones who may be trapped in purgatory waiting for admission to Heaven. Still, some peoples held tight to pre Hispanic symbols like Mctechasua and her skull necklace, which endure today as the skeleton Sheik Katrina and brightly

painted sugar skulls. American concepts of death tend to be fearful, and Halloween is a scary time. The spirits of the dead are more likely to return as creepy ghosts than friendly visitors. But Eldiya dels Mortos is a celebration of life, both here and beyond, when the souls of the departed come home for feasting and fun. The holiday's traditions help us remember, respect and celebrate loved ones who have passed, and they let us laugh at death while poking fun

at the living. The Mexican poet and author Octavial Pus described this attitude, writing that a Mexican person quote is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favorite toys and his steadfast love. Even the cemetery, a place that Westerners tend to associate with mourning and fear, is tinged with laughter, music, and colorful decorations on the Day of the Dead. A death,

after all, is part of the human experience. We'll get back to the cemetery in a moment, but Day of the Dead really starts in the home with the building of afrandas, a type of festive altar dedicated to deceased love ones. An afranda can be small or large, humble or ornate, but ite's sure to include a picture of the person who has passed a plus some of their favorite foods and drinks to help them refuel after the

long journey from the spirit world. The path home is marked by flower petals scattered on and around the altar, a smoky incense candles, and papel piccato, a multicolored sheets of tissue paper with elaborate designs cut into them. The dominant color of afrendas is the rich orange yellow of Mexican marigolds. In the days approaching Day of the Dead, a flower market sell mounds of fragrant marigolds for decorating offrendas, along with white baby's breadth and purple red cock's comb.

But in parts of Mexico where a Day of the Dead is still traditionally observed, much of the celebration centers around the local cemetery. In the days leading up to November first, families will clean up the grave site of a loved one. They'll pull out weeds, put a fresh coat of paint on iron fences or white down headstones. In humbler cemeteries, where a grave might only be marked with a simple wooden cross, families might bring shovels and

mound up fresh soil over the grave. Then it's time to decorate a graveside off brendas include lots of marigolds, candles, and offerings of food and drink for the famished souls of the departed. On the night of November First, families gather around the graves. They bring food and drinks for themselves as well as for their spirit guests. A musicians

take requests for loved one's favorite tunes. Families stay in the cemetery all night, visiting with neighbors, telling stories and jokes, and keeping the candles lit and the plates of food full for the unseen guests of honor. A Spanish word for skeleton is calivera, and calaveras play a large role

in Day of the Dead imagery, costumes, and art. Although skeleton motifs go back to the Aztec Lady of the Dead, a modern calivera imagery is deeply influenced by Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada, who gained fame in the late eighteen hundreds drawing satirical cartoons of Mexico's wealthy elite and corrupt politicians, all portrayed as comical skeletons. His most enduring image is

La Calavera Katrina from around nineteen ten. It portrays a skeleton wearing a beautiful posh lady's hat decorated with flowers and feathers and pretty tassels in her not hair. It's a commentary on vanity, youth, beauty, money. You can't take

any of it with you. Today you'll find ornate clay statues of colorfully painted Katrinas and her male counterpart Katrine for sale at Day of the Dead markets, alongside smaller figurines of Calaveras at work and play Calivera dentists, Caliverra bartenders, Calovera footballers, etc. But there's also a second type of Day of the Dead Calovera owen. Posado was making his

prints in turn of the twentieth century Mexico. Many of his drawings adorned satirical poems called calaveras literarius literary calaveras. These short, rhyming verses poked fun at all classes of Mexican society and writing original colorvedos is still part of Day of the Dead festivities for kids and grown ups. Alike. Skeletons also appear as sugar skulls, bright white skulls made of a type of sugarpaste called alfa yike. Those craft markets have them in all sizes from tiny to life sized,

iced with colorful designs. However, though technically edible, they're meant to be decorative, placed on afrendas or given as gifts. The markets have plenty of skulls meant for snacking, though, including chocolate skulls, lollipop skulls, and marshmallow skulls. Another holiday treat is Pandemorthos, the bread of the Dead, available mostly only around late October. Pandamorthos is made with a rich, eggy dough flavored with a dash of orange blossom extract.

It's shaped into a round and topped with bulbous ropes of dough shaped like crossper before being dusted with sugar and baked. Today's episode is based on the article ten Lively facts about the Day of the Dead on how stuffworks dot com, written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my

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