For this next episode from “The Hair-Covered Hand” I am going to be talking about one of the oldest Mexican traditions, that has been around since the Aztecs used to rule the country, a tradition that started roughly 3,000 years ago. For those who have little knowledge on how the tradition is celebrated, it is believed that for one night, on November 2nd, the spirits of those who have passed are allowed to return from the afterworld to visit their families one more time, people put up altars with food, pictures and things that those relatives might have liked when they were still around. However, it is also an opportunity for evil spirits to roam around and “be free” among the living.
In this blog, I am going to be discussing an event that happened to a lady named Nancy, in Acapulco, Mexico. During this day, her family was at home celebrating late at night, since it is known that starting midnight, these spirits start appearing; everything went smoothly until around 5am, which was about the time they were getting to go to bed, suddenly, they all heard a noise but paid no attention to it. A couple of minutes passed after she was already covered in bed, when she suddenly felt like someone had sat down right next to her, but she was too afraid to look at who it was, then her daughter and her sister-in-law told her that they had seen her dad sitting right next to her, but that it was too clear, his facial features and everything, but that the old man only stared at them. Incredible enough, her father had passed nine years before the events, so they were all pretty shocked at the situation. Although they were afraid, they felt a type of happiness since they were happy to have seen the father once again, and for the rest of the day, they all felt a familiar presence still wandering around. Which might have been just the illusion of “having seeing something”, or the actual spirit of the father that came back to celebrate with his family for a day.
I know a lot of people that do not believe in spirits and the whole living in a supernatural world after dying, but I also know people that do not miss to put up their altars and ofrendas for their families during this day, but I must say that this is a tradition that really represents Mexican culture, and it should be preserved and passed on for generations.
The podcast uses sound effects in the background and traditional music that keeps you entertained and focused on the story of the person interviewed, it captures the intensity of the events that unfolded. Mr. Saenz keeps the story going by asking Nancy questions about how she felt at the moment and links her experience to those that other people might have had before. The fact that this tradition is celebrated throughout Mexico and some other countries in the continent, it is right to believe that many people have had experiences like this before, on this occasion it was not a bad one, yet I believe many had some pretty spooky experiences during the Day of the Dead. This podcast is both a narration and an interview.
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Hey Johann! This seems like a really interesting podcast! From what I’ve learned about Día de los Muertos, it’s very interesting and this story shows that for sure.I find it fascinating that something so full of importance for so many people can take a wrong turn, and with all that I’ve learned in school about the day, I had never thought about the premise of being with those who have passed potentially being terrifying. It is quite interesting to see that side of things, for this reason. I enjoyed how deeply you went into explaining what Día de los Muertos is for readers who may not have heard of it before, which helps the reader understand why the story hit the people experiencing it in a way that it did. On top of that, I enjoyed that you went in depth about the experience that the people in the story went through and how that affected them. For my post, I took the route of talking more about the differences between the episodes that I had listened to for the first blog and this more recent one so I enjoy reading other people’s analysis of their own podcasts and how those compare to my own. Overall, your blog post is a fun read and it kept me entertained during the duration of the blog. Thanks for sharing a frightening story so close to Halloween that also is about another holiday that is soon after Halloween as well! Have a great one!
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Hello Johann, first of all you have a good smell for podcast’s, this series seems to be extremely interesting and yet very informational. What you describe in this podcast really does hit home, as I remember in my childhood having a fear for Dia de los Muertos, but yet it was also a celebration. I also just have to thank you for writing about this podcast, as I have been living away from home for a long while now, I do miss my family and along with my family I have missed several traditions that my family would. So remembering this celebration makes me remember all those memories with my family and cherish them. Just like you said, there is a great majority of people who do not believe in spirits of past family members along with the evil ones, but that is what makes this tradition and culture super special. I really liked this post, as for mine I felt I was just nagging on and on about how the host used her evidence, rather your post gives me some insight as to what it felt like to listen to the podcast. I think it is very interesting how this podcast included an interview of an account of a person who had an actual experience with a spirit. And rather than make it a bad account, the narrator used one of a good experience, I believe this helped really furthest share the culture tradition of Dia de los Muertos. Thank you for sharing, I truly appreciated reading this blog post.
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