Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 7 November 2004 Vol 3 Issue: #32 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, Osiyo, This is the season ... it starts at Halloween, and sometimes earlier. Halloween, or All Saints Day ... solemnly celebrated on the first of day of November. It was instituted to honor all the saints, known and unknown. In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr’s death. Often martyrs suffered on the same day. This, of course, led to celebrating many martyrs on the same day; however, not all, so that a separate day could not be assigned to each martyr. Since the feeling was that every martyr should be venerated, the appointment of a common day for all was inevitable. That day eventually became the first of November, probably because Gregory III consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversay as 1 November. Dia de los Muertos ... The Day of the Dead ... which is also known as the Fiesta de los Muertos, is a holiday which is celebrated by the Spanish speaking countries of Central and South America. This has spread some to the North American continent. This holiday celebration originates with the indigenous native peoples of Mexico. These pre-Hispanic people had a belief that the souls of the dead would return each year to visit with their living kin. When the Spaniards arrived in the early 16th century, they found this well established in the native religions. The Aztec people held rituals that included the use of skulls. To the Aztec, skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth. Yep, rebirth. The Spanish regarded this as pagan and barbaric. They tried assimilation, which was difficult to say the least. The Aztec ritual was originally held in the summer, overlapping July and August. The Spanish Catholics pushed the celebration to the first of November to coincide with All Saints Day. The second of November then could be kept as the commemoration of all the faithful departed. Well, the traditional native holiday was intermixed with the Catholic tradition but never disappeared. In many Mexican localities, the first of November is the day for remembrance of deceased infants and children, often referred to as Dia de los Angelitos ... The Day of Little Angels. The adult departees are honored on the second of November. Total assimilation failed. Well, this is the season to celebrate with the dead. Have you ever noticed how many of your loved ones seem to pass on between about Halloween and the New Year? My Father died in the latter days of October. My Father and Mother-in-Law in November. A cousin and our daughter died in the last two days of December. And, those are just a few of our close loved ones. The Dia de los Muertos is not celebrated by just Hispanics. Our family remembers our loved ones. When we were children, my wife and I went on picnics together. Some of the favorite places were cemeteries. We would always look for surnames of our family and we would recognize them. We gained respect and knowledge of our past and the family of which we were members. All this thinking was brought about because of a simple act of kindness. One of the genealogy societies in which I hold membership purchased a roll of microfilm to place in the local library’s local history and genealogy department, dedicating it to our daughter. What a nice memorial. e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html