Color print
- Museum number:
- 13-6756
- Permalink:
- ark:/21549/hm21130006756
- Alternate number:
- 13-5891
- Accession number:
- Acc.4724
- Description:
- color photographic print; matted "Family of the deceased at the grave site, with a basket of tamales to feed visitors; Todos Santos (All Saints' Day), November 1-2, 1977." [matted at PAHMA for exhibition]
- Donor:
- George M. Foster
- Collection place:
- Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán, Mexico
- Verbatim coll. place:
- Mexico, Michoacan, Tzintzuntzan
- Collector:
- George M. Foster
- Collection date:
- November 1-2, 1977
- Materials:
- Paper (fiber product)
- Object type:
- ethnography
- Object class:
- Color prints (photographs)
- Accession date:
- October 11, 2001
- Department:
- Still and motion photography
- Dimensions:
- matted— width 40.7 centimeters, photo— height 35.5 centimeters, matted— height 50.7 centimeters, and photo— width 27.9 centimeters
- Comment:
- The combination of obliterated old graves, few new tombs, and clerical opposition had reduced the practice [candlelight cemetery vigils on All Souls' Night] to a low ebb when I first saw it in 1945. With subsequent clerical approval, and with the accumulation of several hundred graves in the new cemetery, there is again impetus for the former custom. When I first again was in Tzintzuntzan on this date, in 1961, after being away sixteen years, I was astonished to see hundreds of people and thousands of candles, and activity in the cemetery from midnight until well after sunrise. The emotional experience of the night, in all its details, and the opportunity to express the ties of friendship by food exchange, fills such an important need in the villagers' lives that it seems likely this custom will continue for a long time. Beyond this, tourists are now beginning to come, . . . and the favorable remarks they make about the beauty of the scene are very gratifying to most Tzintzuntzeños (1967).