Cermony begins celebrations of Day of the Dead

B'Neh Zenoria conducted Sunday's ceremony to honor
those who have passed. Photo by Persephone Bolero

By Bolero News Services

AMAZON -- People of the Amazon honored the dead with a ceremony Sunday, the first of many solemn events that will lead up to the Day of the Day.

At a graveyard near The Well, north of the eastern swamplands, B’Neh Zenoria told the story of Xóchitl and Huitzilin, two young people who fell deeply in love.

The ceremony was held near the bamboo forest.
Photo by Nami Giulia

According to the native myth, Zenoria explained to the crowd who’d gathered to honor those who have passed, as the children grew, their love “surpassed the earthly.”

“They particularly enjoyed hiking to the top of a near mountain where they would offer flowers to the Sun god Tonatiuh,” Zenoria told the worshipers.

Xóchitl and her love, Huitzilin, pledged their love to each other on top of that mountain, saying their bond would last an eternity.

Honoring the dead brought closure for some.
Photo by Nami Giulia

After Huitzilin died in war, which seems to happen a lot with native men, Xóchitl was overcome with grief and returned to the same mountain top where she and Huitzilin pledged their undying love to each other. She begged Tonatiuh to be reunited with Huizilin.

Fortunately, she was pretty persuasive. The sun god agreed to reunite them, but there was a catch. Rather than being a cute, young couple, the god turned them into a cempasúchil, also known as a Mexican marigold. But they were together for eternity and smelled pretty good, so in that way the story has a happy ending.

"Such a beautiful story,” Hope, a member of the seeker cult, swooned.

Goldeneye Blackheart peers at a candle placed upon a grave.
Photo by Persephone Bolero

Following the touching yet tragic story, Zenoria invited the attendees to pull up marigolds and lay them upon graves, along with candles.

There were many who attended the ceremony, like Hope, who were taken by the sacredness and closure that comes with honoring the dead.

“Kind of takes your breath away,” the seeker said, bewildered.

Zenoria, however, said she had some misgivings about the ceremony’s impact on those who attended.

The cremony placated the normally wild Kiki Bolero.
Photo by Persephone Bolero

"I am not sure if everyone here was in the spirit,” she stated as the graveyard emptied at dusk, “but it was good that no one did anything too disrespectful. Their natures are as they are, it seems you can't stop life, even in a cemetery.”

Zenoria said she hopes, if nothing else, Sunday’s ceremony and those that follow in the leadup to the Day of the Dead will remind people that death is not the end of our existence and our lives have impacts beyond this world.

“What we do here does not end here,” she explained. “It follows us to where we go next and beyond that. I hope for a short time that they can put their anger away and focus on the love and goodness those that have passed on will sense and return to."

"What we do does not end here." - Zenoria
Photo by Nami Giulia