In article >, says...
>
> In article >,
> Gorio > wrote:
> >
> >'Charlotte L. Blackmer[_2_ Wrote:
> >> ;1543805']In article
> >> m,
> >> Janet Wilder wrote:-
> >> On 10/30/2010 11:35 AM, koko wrote:-
> >>
> >> I made some Pan de Muerto.
> >> '_KCB3043 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!'
> >> (http://www.flickr.com/photos/koko181/5123836447/)
> >>
> >> It is a dense sweet bread that is typically made for the Day of the
> >> Dead celebrations Nov 2nd.-
> >>
> >> I thought that was November 1. It's the Mexican celebration of All
> >> Saint's Day, isn't it?-
> >>
> >> November 1 - All Saints Day
> >> (Hallowe'en comes from an alternate name, All Hallows, and "even" for
> >> "evening" ... in this context, "the night before")
> >> November 2 - All Souls Day - all the dead, not just the recognized
> >> "saints", thus "the day of the dead"
> >>
> >> The original "soul food" was food left out "for the dead".
>
>
> >Day of the Dead was around waaaay before Cats showed up. Different
> >timeof year (July or August). Just because some Euro-like the name now
> >doesn't make it Christian.
>
> This post reminded me that I need to add foodbanter.com as a whole to the
> ol' killfile.
>
> It's incoherent, confrontational, and doesn't talk about food. FAIL all
> around.
>
> ObFood: spotted first fresh cranberries of the season at TJ's, so might
> be making a Williams-Sonoma orange bread recipe with cranberries and
> walnuts as well as another round of those pumpkin cheesecake bar thingies
> for an emergency coffee hour host fill-in stint.

Dunno about you but I find the history of a celebration to be
interesting. And Catholicism has a long history of incorporating pagan
festivals into the Church calendar. The particular one was a month long
summer festival that celebrated the dead, with a believe that for that
time they returned to visit from wherever they had gone. It was
customary to picnic near the gravesite of a dead relative and serve his
favorite foods. The Spanish didn't like it (partly, I suspect, because
the Aztecs acted like they actually _believed_ in an afterlife and
didn't just pay lip service to it) and tried to eradicate it, with the
move to November and the conflation with All Saints Day part of the
failed effort.

While there are now traditions built up around the November celebration,
if one goes back to its roots one can have some fun with it, and
possibly some happy memories besides.