Day of the Dead - Dia de los Muertos - Mexico

In het Engels, Nederlandse stukje hier.
Dit stuk staat in verband met "Dansen en Zingen met de doden" op 4 mei in Den Bosch.
Dia de Los muertos het Mexicaanse feest wat gevierd wordt op onze Allerzielen en Allerheiligen.

Day of the Dead is a time of reflection about the meaning of life and the mission that one needs to fulfill. Death in many situations imparts a feeling of pain and loss, particularly for those who do not know the purpose of their path on this earthly plane. For others, death is transcendence, transformation and resurrection. During the celebration of Day of the Dead all those feelings and beliefs come together in a season that brings to life the memory of the loved ones. In the typical Halloween festivities, death is something to be feared. But in el día de los muertos, death — or at least the memories of those who have died — is something to be celebrated. 

New Orleans traditional Jazz funeral

You have to be buried properly for the soul to be at peace, to say nothing of the importance of good burial for the survivors. Dancing at funerals was not only a given in Africa, it was an old (and sometimes prohibited) tradition in Spain, a country with African heritage.

A symbol of life, a symbol of death and a symbol of re-birth, the New Orleans jazz funeral salutes a life well lived and the passage of a departed soul into a better world.

The music at the start of the jazz funerals starts off slow and mournful, out of sorrow and respect for the loss of the departed. As the deceased is laid to rest, he has gone to his reward and the music reflects the joy both of the departed's ascension into paradise, along with a celebration of life.

This funeral harkens back to old African traditions – a belief that life wasn’t over at ‘death.’ The Dahomean and Yoruba of West Africa thought that death, in this world, meant that a spirit could now run free into a new one. Those still living would mourn, yes – but then they could revel in the knowledge that their old friend would be dancing his heart out, on the other side.

Louis Armstrong describes a New Orleans Jazz Funeral in the documentary film Satchmo the Great.

"And, speaking of real beautiful music, if you ever witnessed a funeral in New Orleans and they have one of those brass bands playing this funeral, you really have a bunch of musicians playing from the heart, because as they go to the cemetery they play in a funeral march, they play "Flee As a Bird," "Nearer My God Today," and they express themselves in those instruments singing those notes the same as a singer would, you know.  "

 The reason for rocking the casket, is so he can dance one last time.

Some nice B/W photos from Jazz Funerals dating 1968-1970 you can find here