Im actually a huge fan of the Day of the Dead becoming officially incorporated into our Pan-American cultural identity. Partially for the same reasons that I think Spanish language education should be obligate in US primary and secondary education: as a nation that has been latin@ for as long as its been a nation, comprised largely of Spanish and Mexican territory, with what has always been a numerically and culturally significant first and second gen latin@ population, it makes sense to culturally acknowledge that we are a part of the Americas, and recognize and honor the bidirectional nature of that cultural exchange. But more importantly, Day of the Dead fills a niche that is currently left unfilled in US culture - a day for a family and/or community to get together and celebrate its members who live on only as memories, strengthening those memories and thus those memetic afterlives. Ive always preferred Christmas/Solstice and Thanksgiving (or preferably Thanksgivings pilgrim-free Canadian alternative) to Halloween. Halloween, in the American context, is about dressing up and going out, and I much prefer to dress down and stay in, spending my time making food, reliving and creating memories, and building family with my loved ones. The article is absolutely right about whats going to happen when Day of the Dead becomes a mainstream American cultural phenomenon. Even adjusting for Millenials decreased appetite for mass consumerism, it will become a bastardized, commercialized, commodified cultural good, like Valentines Day and Christmas before it. But the magic and majesty of the private family Christmas/Solstice holiday survives the commercial horror that is Mall Christmas. And Valentines Day functions perfectly well to strengthen pairbonds and force partners to check in with each other despite all the chocolaty pink froth thrown at it. Day of the Dead survived continental genocide and the Catholic Church. It can certainly survive capitalism. Love is stronger than money.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:50:26 +0000
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