Here grocery stores sell packaged pan de muerto. The first time I saw that I didn't know what it was, but I knew "death bread" didn't sound too appetizing, lol.
Well, my family does not come from Mexico so I can't tell, also my background is Evangelical so my family would get away from any of that stuff. We ate some bread with a kid form with colada morada, a purple and thick liquid that is prepared with typical fruits of Ecuador, spices and corn flour.
Wiki also says it's very popular in Ecuador, for what it's worth. Anyway, nothing wrong with remembering deceased relatives but many aspects of this look to me like death itself is being celebrated.
Jesus will bring you closer to Jesus. Death is the enemy He has defeated. It shouldn't be celebrated.
I'm still going to die though. Christ has defeated death, but I think of it as, he made her holy, gentle and virginal--like Ireneaus says of Eve. Christ is present in death as well as on the other side of it.
The difference is we know the saints are in union with God. We shouldn't invoke any other persons, if we know what's good for us.
That's true. I have just been wondering of late, if the invocation of saints was prefigured by ancestor worship. It seems like it would be easier for a person who offered libations to his dead relatives in order to relieve them, would rejoice to see Christ as the libation which freed them from their predicament. So, whether in hades or heaven, as far as communication goes, nothing would change. It's not like Christ took them away from their loved ones on earth. This in contrast to a person who did not believe that their ancestors were near. I think it would be harder for them to come to the realization, once Christian, that Christ makes them near now. But I am probably wrong. I believe that saints can be invoked. I can't prove it from Scripture though. I go on experience and the idea that the kingdom of God is within. To me, this means, that each individual saint resides in me (and can see all things with regard to me), like the many eyed cherubim.
