Preparations begin for Day of the Dead celebrations

(25 Oct 2019) LEAD IN:
Artisans in Mexico are working hard to prepare ahead of the country's Day of the Dead celebrations in early November.
The holiday, when families welcome back the souls of their dead lived ones, has exploded into the mainstream in the US and across the western world in recent years.
STORY-LINE:
Mexicans are preparing to celebrate the Day of the Dead, a time to honour deceased relatives with vigils and homemade altars, a tradition which dates back to the country's pre-Hispanic roots.
Each year on the first two days of November, they make offerings including food, drink and pastries to the spirits of their dead relatives.
Miguel Cardona is already busy baking Bread of the Dead.
He layers strips of bread representing bones on the rounded buns.
The delicious sweet yeast bread is a staple of Mexico's traditional Day of the Dead celebrations.
"The bread's circumference symbolises the life and death cycle. Then we have 4 shinbones or bones, that represents on one side the departed bones and on the other the tears of the moaners as well as the four cardinal points," Cardona explains.
"The little ball in the middle represents the skull."
Millions of Mexicans remember their dead loved ones on the annual Day of the Dead.
In the western City of Guadalajara, craftsmakers and artisans begin making traditional products weeks in advance, to be sold in markets across the country.
Cardona says demand for his bread triples around this period.
Julia Murrieta is preparing chocolate skulls.
"For me the Day of the Dead is a sacred day," she says.
Preparing sugar and chocolate skulls, as well as cutting paper garlands is a tradition that passes from generation to generation in families such as the Murrietas.
It is a time to show gratitude to loved ones who "deserve a family party and time with us," she says.
Angelica Guerra, a researcher at Guadalajara University specialising in cultural heritage, says the tradition is changing to adapt to the culture in Mexico today.
"Culture is dynamic. This means that all people's cultural expressions are not static. Therefore the Day of the Dead has changed," she says.
The celebration has exploded into the mainstream in recent years.
Academy-award winning animation film "Coco" and "Spectre" from the James Bond franchise have featured the festival.
A parade featured in the Bond movie has been adopted by several cities around the country, even though it did not exist prior to the film.
Some say it is a form of cultural appropriation, but Guerra disagrees.
"What we have today is a worldwide acknowledged celebration that also involves the arts. For instance, we can see fashion design, the design of different characters, many parades, catrines and catrinas (skull depictions) everywhere. And all of this has a reference to the movies impact," she says.
This year Zapopan City has set up a programme for making Alebrijes (paper mache statues) and delivering them to cultural centres across the city.
Alejandra Cruz is the head of the city's cultural centres.
"It's a renewal exercise for our traditions. And beyond that, it is about spending time with the kids from the workshops, their families and the teacher. This enables us to grow the project and to share it with the community."
Day of the Dead celebrations begin on October 31st and end on November 2 in Mexico.
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