Latin America celebrates Day of the Dead

(1 Nov 2017) Latin American countries are celebrating Day of the Dead with different rituals meant to honour and remember their deceased loved ones. In Peru, people traveled to cemeteries with live music, flowers and smiles on Wednesday where they made their offerings to their dead relatives. At the Nueva Esperanza cemetery in Lima, one of the largest in the world, people took balloons and even had a barbeque at the gravesites. The Day of the Dead combines the Roman Catholic observance of All Saints Day with the pre-Hispanic custom of offering food, or even cigars and tequila, to the deceased. People believe that the souls of their departed loved ones return for the day. The feast day is also a chance to tend to graves, water plants and tidy up the plots. Meanwhile in Haiti, revelers streamed into cemeteries on Wednesday bearing beeswax candles and other offerings. Voodoo priests and priestesses performed rituals. Voodoo, or Vodou as preferred by Haitians, evolved in the 17th century when colonists brought slaves to Haiti from West Africa. Slaves forced to practice Catholicism adopted saints to coincide with African religions. It was sanctioned as an official religion in 2003 and it is practiced across the country of 10 million inhabitants. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/7583376143812bffb82aa7a2bd303660 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork