Digging the Days of the Dead: a reading of Mexico's días de muertos

Dias de muertos - Days of the Dead - is celebrated in Mexico each year in late October and early November. It is a family reunion in which the dead are the guests of honour and are welcomed with their favourite foods, carefully chosen gifts, and ritual paraphernalia such as candles and incense. In Digging The Days Of The Dead, Juanita Garciagodoy Depicts Various Aspects Of The Celebration - Including Prehispanic And Spanish Catholic Traces On Its Development As Well As Folk And Popular Culture Versions - And Describes Its Changing Place In Contemporary Mexico. Garciagodoy Examines In Detail Differences In Attitudes Toward Death In Mexico And The United States. In Part Because The Living Do Not Exclude The Dead From Their Family Circle, Celebrants Of Dias De Muertos Treat Death As An Intimate Life Companion And Fear It Less Than Their Northern Counterparts, Who Tend To View Death As Inimical. 1. The Dead As Guests Of Honor -- 2. Reading Dias De Muertos -- 3. Dias De Muertos And National Identity -- 4. Two Manifestations Of Dias De Muertos -- 5. Pre-hispanic And Peninsular Traces In Dias De Muertos -- 6. Dias De Muertos Versus Hallowe'en: A Fight To The Death? -- 7. Contemporary Attitudes Toward Death -- 8. Reading Calaveras -- 9. Feasting On Skeletons -- 10. Last Words, Last Rites -- Appendix A. Literary Calaveras -- Appendix B. Two Mexican Stories And A Spanish Poem -- Appendix C. Notes On Posada's Engravings -- Appendix D. A Selection Of Nahuatl Poems. Juanita Garciagodoy. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 321-328) And Index. In Digging the Days of the Dead, Juanita Garciagodoy depicts various aspects of Mexico's Dias de Muertos -- including Prehispanic and Spanish Catholic influences on its development as well as folk and popular culture versions -- and describes its changing place in contemporary Mexico. She also examines in detail differences in attitudes toward death in Mexico and the United States.Lavishly illustrated, Digging the Days of the Dead is indispensable for scholars interested in Mexican religion and culture. A study of the annual Mexican celebration in which the dead are the guests of honor. Garciagodoy (Spanish, Macalester College) depicts various aspects of the celebration--including Prehispanic and Spanish Catholic traces on its development--and describes its changing place in contemporary Mexico. She also looks in detail at differences in attitudes towards death in Mexico and the US. Includes 96 b&w photographs and a 16 page-color insert. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.