GERMANY

 

ALLERHEILIGEN AND ALLERSEELEN

Days remembering and commemorating the dead have been observed by peoples all over the world. In the northern countries, as days grew shorter and nights longer and as the year wound down, it became a time to focus on the mystery of human death. Especially in Germany there are, in November, many commemorations of the dead. Allerheiligen (All Saints) and Allerseelen (All Souls) are celebrated in Catholic areas at the beginning of November. November 9 is the commemoration of the Kristallnacht (crystal night) pogrom. On the 3rd Sunday in November the German Volkstrauertag (Memorial Day) is observed. On the last Sunday before Advent is Totensonntag (Sunday of the Dead) when Protestant Christians remember their dead. It corresponds to the Catholic All Souls Day. On the Wednesday before, the original Protestant "Buss- und Bettag" (Day of Repentance and Prayer) takes place. The last Sunday before Advent is also the last Sunday of the Church Year. The new Church Year is ushered in with Advent and the expectation of Christmas.

All Saints/All Souls became focal points of veneration of the dead ever since Pope Gregory in 835 initiated the church wide celebration. Dates still fluctuate somewhat. In Bavaria and Austria the time between October 30 through November 8 is celebrated as "Seelenwoche" (All Souls Week). Hallowtide is a time to remember and honor the dead, and it is a time when the "veil between the worlds," this world and the next, is "thinner" than normally.

By the end of the middle ages, the celebration of All hallows Eve was an established part of the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. However, after the Reformation, Protestants rejected Halloween and did not recognize All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, because of strict adherence to the Ten Commandments, among which honoring the dead is not mentioned. Good deeds should not be carried out for the dead, but for the living. However, the Lutheran Church was not able to keep people from their need to commemorate their dead. Thus "Totensonntag" (Sunday of the Dead) was initiated, to be celebrated by Protestants on the Sunday before the first Sunday in Advent.

http://www.serve.com/shea/germusa/allsaint.htm

MEXICO

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_dead

What is missing from that article is any mention of the fantastic folk-art imagery of the dead (Memento mori) that is often associated with the celebration, or how elaborate some of the altars or shrines (Ofrendas) might be. The following article gives one example of each:
http://www.houstonculture.org/cr/diade.html

The art of José Guadalupe Posada (or similiar macabre art of fancifully dressed skeletons) is associated with El Día de los Muertos:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%E9_Guadalupe_Posada
http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/posada.html

PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) in the US even did a program on the Mexican observance of the Day of the Dead titled "Food for the Ancestors":
http://www.pbs.org/foodancestors/cult.html
http://www.pbs.org/foodancestors/art.html

This webpage has may examples of decorated gravesites and ofrendas (altars).
http://muertos.palomar.edu/dayofthedead.htm

More Día de los Muertos links:
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/feature/daydeadindex.html
http://oaxacalive.com/muertos.htm

November 1 is also an official Mexican government holiday: Informe Presidencial - the President's state of the nation address to the legislature, coinciding with the Catholic "Día de Todos Santos (All Saints' Day)
http://www.mexweb.com/holidays.htm