By María Teresa Hernández
Ana Martínez is eager to welcome her deceased loved ones back home.
Martínez and others in southern Mexico's Oaxaca state wait with anticipation for Day of the Dead celebrations every Nov. 1, when families place homemade altars to honor their dearly departed and spend the night at the cemetery, lighting candles in the hope of illuminating their paths.
“We preserve the culture of our ancestors, and that is why we make our altars,” said Martínez, 41, who lives in the town of Santa María Atzompa.
Each Oct. 31, Martínez builds a three-level altar on her terrace. First come the flowers, a type of marigold known as cempasúchil. Martínez ties them in an arch over the altar.
“For us, that arch is a portal so that they (the deceased) can reach our house,” she said. “We also create a path of flowers to the door as a welcoming sign.”
Next, she lights copal, an incense which is believed to guide the souls, and places foods such as apples, peanuts and bread. Chocolates are for her grandma, she said.
“She was like my mother, so everything I’m going to offer is with the hope that she can be here," Martínez said.
On this date, Oaxacans don’t honor death but rather their ancestors, said the local secretary of culture, Victor Cata. “It’s a celebration of those with whom we shared a time and a roof, who were flesh and blood like us.”
Santa María Atzompa traditions are embraced from childhood and passed from parents to children. Martínez’s 8-year-old daughter asked if she could help arrange the fruit on the altar, and her mother assigned an additional task: Make sure the candles stay lit in the afternoon so that our deceased don’t lose their way.
As soon as the sun sets, locals gather at the cemetery to light candles over their family tombs and start a vigil known as “vela."
María Martínez, 58, paid a visit to her late husband by noon. “I do feel that they are returning today but I also think they are with us daily, not just on this date,” she said.
Oaxacan traditions vary among the 16 indigenous groups and the Afro-descendant community, but according to Cata, there’s a shared ancient knowledge that relates to the land.
“October and November are the dry season, when the land languishes,” Cata said. “But it is reborn, so there is this thought that the dead return to enjoy what they loved in life.”
Felipe Juárez, 67, offered mezcal and beer for one of his brothers. For other family members, his wife cooked Oaxacan delicacies such as mole, a traditional sauce.
It will be a long night, Juárez said, until they go home at 6 a.m., but these are joyful times.
“On the day we die, we will meet them again,” Juárez said. “We will reach that place where they have come to rest.”
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Airline passengers are facing long security lines as unpaid TSA officers have begun calling in sick due to the government shutdown. Staffing shortages led to the closure of an entire terminal at Houston's George Bush International Airport. Local Houston TSA President, Freddie Cuellar, says closing the terminal is the best way to utilize the staff who are able to come to work.
Fashion designer Rachel Roy and daughter Ava Dash noticed that very few young adult novels featured Indian narratives. So they decided to write one themselves. "We realized there have been so many retellings of Greek myths, so we decided that we wanted to be the first," Dash told Cheddar. "So we went through and found a story that really spoke to us."
The 2017 Fyre Fest, which scammed thousands of millennials out of thousands of dollars, is still creating drama.
Nearly two years later, the disastrous event has caused a scuffle between Netflix and Hulu, both producers of rival tell-all docs on the subject. But according to the director of Netflix's "Fyre," there's really no contest, largely because Netflix attracts "a much bigger audience."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019.
As NBCUniversal, Disney, and WarnerMedia prepare to launch streaming services, Netflix is raising subscription prices to ensure it has the budget to tighten its stronghold and expand its reach in the content wars. Netflix announced on Tuesday it will raise its prices 13 to 18 percent, just as NBCUniversal confirmed it was entering the streaming business with its own subscription service.
Canopy Growth is planning its entry to the U.S. on the back of the new Farm Bill ー and aims to establish a hemp "hub" in New York, according to CEO Bruce Linton."New York is setting up a pretty progressive approach and we have an earlier first license under that system so we can actually create a hub," Linton told Cheddar on Tuesday.
As the government shutdown drags on, calls from some conservative corners have increased for President Trump to declare a national emergency in order to get federal employees back to work while diverting funds to build a border wall. However, conservative radio show host Erick Erickson is cautioning the president against doing just that.
The National Retail Federation trade show, held this week in New York City, has long been a place for industry players ー merchants, retailers, payment providers, marketing execs ー to gather and preview the latest innovations in commerce. And while Amazon, the world's largest retailer, was conspicuously absent from this year's event the presence of the e-commerce behemoth could be felt across the vast expanse of the Javits Convention Center.
Disappointing quarterly earnings from JPMorgan Chase weighed on the Dow and other major indexes Tuesday morning even though investors seemed optimistic about a new stimulus plan from China. NBC disclosed more details about its ad-supported streaming service which is scheduled to launch in 2020. Plus, Harlem Capital's John Henry joins Cheddar to talk about Gary Vaynerchuk's Agent2021 conference, his new Viceland series, and Harlem Capital's first fund for underrepresented entrepreneurs.
In an era when superheroes reign supreme at the box office, M. Night Shyamalan's "Glass" is ending a trilogy that began before the genre fully entered the mainstream."When 'Unbreakable' came out, I think a lot of people were questioning Night, especially studios and stuff, \[saying\], 'really?' A comic book movie? I'm not sure that's the best idea,'" star Spencer Treat Clark told Cheddar.
