Pan de Muertos (Day of the Dead Bread) Recipe Adapted from Richard Sandoval of Pampano and Maya restaurants in New York City

Pan de Muertos (Day of the Dead Bread) Recipe

Adapted from Richard Sandoval of Pampano and Maya restaurants in New York City

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Difficulty: Medium | Total Time: 3 hrs 40 mins | Makes: 2 loaves

During the Day of the Dead festivities in the first two days of November, graves are decorated with flowers and offerings of food and drink in honor of the departed, including this pan de muertos, a yeasty, sweet egg bread flavored with anise.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 teaspoon anise seed
• 1/2 ounce (2 packets) active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
• Vegetable oil, for oiling the bowl
• 1 egg yolk beaten with 2 teaspoons water

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine the sugar, salt, anise seed, and yeast in a small mixing bowl. Heat the milk, water, and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until the butter is just melted; do not allow it to boil. Add the milk mixture to the dry mixture and beat well with a wire whisk.

Stir in the eggs and 1 1/2 cups of the flour and beat well. Add the remaining flour, little by little, stirring well with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured wooden board and knead until it is smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky, about 9 to 10 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow the dough to rise in a warm area until it has doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Punch down the dough and divide it into 2 pieces. Cut 3 small (about 1-ounce) balls from each half and mold them into skull-and-bones shapes. Shape the large pieces of dough into round loaf shapes and place the skull-and-bones on top. Place the breads on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let them rise another hour.

Brush the loaves with the egg yolk mixture and bake. Halfway through baking, about 20 minutes, remove the loaves from the oven and brush again with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar. Return to the oven and bake until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped, about another 20 minutes.

Day Of The Dead (1985) George A Romero ... HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MEXICO . . . JUST A STRANGE POST AND MOVIE :) ivan

Mexico’s Celebration of Death: An Age-Old Tradition

30 Sep 2010/24 Comments/in Featured Articles/by Yucatan Holidays

 “The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death. (He) jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love.”
Octavio Paz

If this quote demonstrates anything, it is that the Mexican culture has a unique and intimate relationship with death, a relationship not much of the rest of the world truly understands.

Dating back to pre-hispanic time, the native cultures that inhabited Mexico and Central America actively practiced a ritual that appeared to mock death. There relationship with fatality was not at all like the Europeans, a group of people that saw death as merely the end of life. For the natives, it was nothing more than a stage, a passage to something else.

Although the Spanish attempted to eradicate this ritual, among other practices, this particular practice survived and eventually became engrained into North and Central American Catholicism. It has been carried throughout many years and it is celebrated today.

November 1^st and 2^nd are the two days in which Mexico celebrates The Day of the Dead orDía de Muertos. Although it is celebrated about the same time as Halloween, Day of the Dead originates from a different notion. Halloween comes from an ancient Celtic celebration to ward off evil spirits that are trying to enter the natural world whereas Day of the Dead is merriment and honors and welcomes the spirits of loved ones that have passed. Those that celebrate Halloween wear masks and costumes to scare away the evil spits and those that celebrate Day of the Dead offer beautiful floral arrangements, sweets and food to the spirits in a much more hospitable manner.

The colors alone during Day of the Dead celebrations are beautiful but when it all comes together, the festivities, the smells, the sights and sounds; it is something every traveler must see at least once. A lot of skulls and skeletons are used as decorative purposes and to those of who are not familiar with this particular celebration, it can appear to be morbid. But the skeletal figures represent the mysteries and complexities of both death and birth and are not meant to be at all morose. Often the colors of purple, yellow, white, orange, red and pink are mixed together in all of the festivities décor and all colors carry a unique representation.

· Purple = pain, suffering and grief

· Yellow = Often represented in the flower, Marigolds, represent death and the petals are used to make paths to guide the souls home.

· White = Like many other cultures, white represents purity and hope.

· Red = The blood of life, something that sustains the human body and soul.

· Pink = celebration

Although it is celebrated in some areas of the United States and Central America, Day of the Dead is something that is primarily celebrated throughout the entire country of Mexico. From the northern-pacific regions of Baja California to the Yucatan Peninsula, November 1^st and 2^nd is an extraordinary time to visit, a time in which an age-old tradition comes to life in celebration of death in a very unique and joyful way.

 

Day of the Dead By Robin Grose , About.com Guide

Day of the Dead

By Robin Grose , About.com Guide

The Day of the Dead is one of the most important holidays of the Mexicans. Learn more about her through these images and texts that accompany them - and then you feel like celebrating this day, do not worry! it will explain how to assemble your gift and develop the traditional pumpkin blemish .

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In 2005, azcentral.com staffers traveled to Mexico City with La Voz publisher Elvira Espinoza to document Dia de los Muertos activities in Mixquic, Mexico

DAY OF THE DEAD

Mixquic, Mexico

In 2005, azcentral.com staffers traveled to Mexico City with La Voz publisher Elvira Espinoza to document Dia de los Muertos activities in Mixquic, Mexico. Once a farming island of the Aztec empire, Mixquic lies in Mexico City's Tlahuac delegation and is known as the "City of the Dead" because of its traditional Dia de los Muertos festivities.

 http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-documentary.html#ixzz299LQiazU

In the final days of October, the entire village focuses on the three-day celebration. Merchants are busy setting up street stands in preparation for the thousands of visitors who will flock here in the coming days. The Parroquia San Andres Apostal Church, a Catholic church which serves as a town center of sorts, is also a hub of activity as the adjoining seminary prepares its courtyard for tourists, and villagers in the surrounding cemetery clean the tightly packed graves of their loved ones. Homes throughout Mixquic are also prepared for the three-day event as visitors will soon make their way inside for brief visits to the altars honoring the dead. Throughout the first two days of November homes in the village have an open door policy, encouraging all passersby to enter.

October 31 is a festive evening as visitors mill around the street festival. Many tour the seminary courtyard where representations of Mictlantecihuatl and Mictlantecuhtle, the lord and lady of the underworld, are on display, along with piles of unidentified skulls and bones that the villagers have found over the years when excavating in the area. The seminary courtyard, like the festival itself, is a mixture of Catholicism and ancient Mexican/Aztec cultures, and is one of the most trafficked spots during the three-day event.

On November 1st and 2nd, as flower and incense vendors fill the streets, families prepare the graves at the Parroquia San Andres Apostal Church cemetery for the celebration. Family burial plots are elaborately decorated with flower petal mosaics, flowers, candles, photos and copal (a traditional incense) burners. At 2 p.m. on November 2nd, family members gather graveside to mourn their loved ones with song, prayer and weeping. As darkness falls, the cemetery glows with the light of thousands of candles and is filled with the scent of flowers and incense. At midnight, souls are called to the cemetary with the tolling of bells from the church, and families remain in the cemetery until dawn visiting with their loved ones.

José Eduardo L�pez Bosch, a professor and expert on Dia de los Muertos, was our guide for the first day of the trip and gave us a sense of the history and complexity of the traditions we were about to witness. He was an invaluable resource, and the history video below is largely based on our interview with him.

All of the video and images below were documented in Mixquic, Mexico between October 28 and November 3, 2004. Thanks to all of the wonderful people of Mixquic who welcomed us into their lives for a brief time. Special thanks also to Elvira Espinoza and her husband Tom who graciously took us around Mexico City as our friends, tour guides and translators. None of this would have been possible without them.

 http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-documentary.html#ixzz299LEi2Yl

Day of the Dead history Indigenous people wouldn't let 'Day of the Dead' die by Carlos Miller The Arizona Republic

DAY OF THE DEAD

Day of the Dead history

Indigenous people wouldn't let 'Day of the Dead' die

by Carlos Miller
The Arizona Republic

More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death.

It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate.

A ritual known today as D�a de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

The ritual is celebrated in Mexico and certain parts of the United States, including the Valley.

Celebrations are held each year in Mesa, Chandler, Guadalupe and at Arizona State University. Although the ritual has since been merged with Catholic theology, it still maintains the basic principles of the Aztec ritual, such as the use of skulls.

Today, people don wooden skull masks called calacas and dance in honor of their deceased relatives. The wooden skulls are also placed on altars that are dedicated to the dead. Sugar skulls, made with the names of the dead person on the forehead, are eaten by a relative or friend, according to Mary J. Adrade, who has written three books on the ritual.

The Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations kept skulls as trophies and displayed them during the ritual. The skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth.

The skulls were used to honor the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the monthlong ritual.

Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed death as the end of life, the natives viewed it as the continuation of life. Instead of fearing death, they embraced it. To them, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake.

"The pre-Hispanic people honored duality as being dynamic," said Christina Gonzalez, senior lecturer on Hispanic issues at Arizona State University. "They didn't separate death from pain, wealth from poverty like they did in Western cultures."

However, the Spaniards considered the ritual to be sacrilegious. They perceived the indigenous people to be barbaric and pagan.

In their attempts to convert them to Catholicism, the Spaniards tried to kill the ritual.

But like the old Aztec spirits, the ritual refused to die.

To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it coincided with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when it is celebrated today.

Previously it fell on the ninth month of the Aztec Solar Calendar, approximately the beginning of August, and was celebrated for the entire month. Festivities were presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The goddess, known as "Lady of the Dead," was believed to have died at birth, Andrade said.

Today, Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and in certain parts of the United States and Central America.

"It's celebrated different depending on where you go," Gonzalez said.

In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.

In Guadalupe, the ritual is celebrated much like it is in rural Mexico.

"Here the people spend the day in the cemetery," said Esther Cota, the parish secretary at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. "The graves are decorated real pretty by the people."

In Mesa, the ritual has evolved to include other cultures, said Zarco Guerrero, a Mesa artist.

"Last year, we had Native Americans and African-Americans doing their own dances," he said. "They all want the opportunity to honor their dead."

In the United States and in Mexico's larger cities, families build altars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead. They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar.

"We honor them by transforming the room into an altar," Guerrero said. "We offer incense, flowers. We play their favorite music, make their favorite food."

At Guerrero's house, the altar is not only dedicated to friends and family members who have died, but to others as well.

"We pay homage to the Mexicans killed in auto accidents while being smuggled across the border," he said. "And more recently, we've been honoring the memories of those killed in Columbine."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html#ixzz299Ic6OZT

Our summer vacation in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.

Puerto Escondido on Vimeo Our summer vacation in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca. vimeo.com/50691192

Puerto Escondido from Monica Lara on Vimeo.

Workers At Grand Coulee Dam Use Helicopters For Construction

Workers At Grand Coulee Dam Use Helicopters For Construction

GRAND COULEE, Wash. - The Bureau of Reclamations is in the middle of replacing cables with overhead power lines at the Grand Coulee Dam.

To do that, they have to string the new cables from the dam using helicopters.

The helicopters will string 54 conductor lines from the dam to six towers.

The old transmission cables are being replaced because of the risk of fire damage, among other threats.

The Bureau hired Wilson Construction for the project.

According to Chad Devine, the general foreman of this project, they are scheduled to finish the project by December.