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Mexican Families

 

A quinceanera marks the transition from childhood to womanhood, a significant passage for adolescent girls in almost all cultures. It is a time in a female's life when she is no longer a child and is ready to make her contribution to society as an adult bringing in an income, preparing food, marrying, and having children. Instead of in America where being a young woman is considered to be ready for marriage, Mexican girls are often given permission to start dating. Quinceaneras are very significant parts of cultural, community, and family life in Mexico. Regardless of family status this passage is always marked by some sort of celebration. .
             Another celebration in Mexico which takes place near the U.S." Halloween is, the Day of the Dead. This is an ancient festivity that has been transformed through the years, but which was intended in pre-Hispanic Mexico to celebrate children and the dead. Therefore, the best way to describe this Mexican holiday is to say that it is a time when Mexican families remember their dead, and the continuity of life. The day's activities consist of visits by families to the graves of their close kin. At the gravesites family members engage in sprucing up the gravesite, decorating it with flowers, setting out and enjoying a picnic, and interacting socially with other family and community members who gather at the cemetery. Families remember the departed by telling stories about them. The meals prepared for these picnics are extravagant, usually featuring meat dishes in spicy sauces, a special egg-batter bread, cookies, chocolate, and sugary confections in a variety of animal or skull shapes. Gravesites or family altars are decorated in large quantities with flowers (primarily large, bright flowers such as marigolds and chrysanthemums), and adorned with religious charms and (in smaller villages) with offerings of food, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. The traditional observance calls for a feast during the early morning hours of November the 2nd, the Day of the Dead proper, though modern urban Mexican families usually observe the Day of the Dead with only a special family supper featuring the "Bread of the Dead".


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