Mexico: Villagers clean SKULLS ahead of Day of the Dead
- 10 years ago
Ancestors rose from the grave thanks to their adoring offspring in a small Mexican village.
Families all over Mexico pay tribute to the departed on Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, by visiting their graves and praying to them for blessings for the coming year.
However, the holiday takes a particularly unusual twist in the village of Pomuch.
Locals dig up the bones of their dead, clean them, and pay tribute to the remains in special shrines for several days.
With intimate care, relatives brush off the dirt and dust which accumulates on the bones from the previous year of lying in a coffin.
SOT, Pomuch resident (in Spanish): "This is a tradition in Pomuch that people have preserved, from parents to sons, dating way back in the past."
The local tradition is alleged to date all the way back to the time of the Maya and mandates that the bones of relatives must be cleaned by family ahead of Dia de los Muertos.
SOT, Man in cemetery (in Spanish): "Is like us that take a bath every day, well we clean them every year."
Every corpse in Pomuch is first buried for three years and then exhumed on Dia de los Muertos, when the bones are cleaned and transferred to a wooden crate.
It takes 3 years for the bones to properly dry out, but they are then cleaned annually.
Unlike other areas, the people of Pomuch never leave their ancestors for dead.
Families all over Mexico pay tribute to the departed on Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, by visiting their graves and praying to them for blessings for the coming year.
However, the holiday takes a particularly unusual twist in the village of Pomuch.
Locals dig up the bones of their dead, clean them, and pay tribute to the remains in special shrines for several days.
With intimate care, relatives brush off the dirt and dust which accumulates on the bones from the previous year of lying in a coffin.
SOT, Pomuch resident (in Spanish): "This is a tradition in Pomuch that people have preserved, from parents to sons, dating way back in the past."
The local tradition is alleged to date all the way back to the time of the Maya and mandates that the bones of relatives must be cleaned by family ahead of Dia de los Muertos.
SOT, Man in cemetery (in Spanish): "Is like us that take a bath every day, well we clean them every year."
Every corpse in Pomuch is first buried for three years and then exhumed on Dia de los Muertos, when the bones are cleaned and transferred to a wooden crate.
It takes 3 years for the bones to properly dry out, but they are then cleaned annually.
Unlike other areas, the people of Pomuch never leave their ancestors for dead.