Compare And Contrast The Catholic Holiday Day Of The Dead

The Catholic holiday Day of The Dead and the westernized holiday of Halloween are two very different holidays celebrated for completely different reasons. The only real similarities between them is the closeness of their date of celebration and their use of the object of death. Other than these two things the holidays are very different from each other.

The first and main reason for these holidays being very different from each other are the basis on which they use death. As you know in our american society death is generally looked down upon and feared. But that is not so in places that celebrate the Day of The Dead. In these places and by these people death is looked at not as something to be afraid of but something to embrace. It is seen as just another part of life. If it is inevitable to happen then why should we be so very afraid of it? This is obviously very different from here in America where fields are made just for the dead to be buried and left in peace with a visitor every seldom. Throughout the year and especially on the Day of The Dead cemeteries are filled with people remembering and celebrating their dead relatives. On the Day of The Dead whole parties are held in the graveyards with shrines over and around tombstones.

Here in America around Halloween you usually see skeletons

Halloween was created when the church wanted to try to make the conversion of religions in England easier for the locals so they made all saints day. On this day people would go around houseto house and sing and dance for food. This eventually turned into trick or treating. Day of the dead is a combination of original tribes beliefs and those of the spaniards when they first colonized mexico. This allowed the locals to still be able to honor their dead freely but still partially work with the catholic beliefs of all saints day in which the spirits of the dead come back to earth