Centro de Difusión Cultural.
Cursos de Inglés Regulares e Intensivos - Spanish Lessons.
La Paz Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Tel. (612)122-43-87 iameryk@yahoo.com
Planteles en LA PAZ, PESCADERO-TODOS SANTOS, LOS CABOS
Throughout history mankind has celebrated the bountiful harvest with thanksgiving ceremonies.
Before the establishment of formal religions many ancient farmers believed that their crops contained spirits which caused the crops to grow and die. Many believed that these spirits would be released when the crops were harvested and they had to be destroyed or they would take revenge on the farmers who harvested them. Some of the harvest festivals celebrated the defeat of these spirits.
Harvest festivals and thanksgiving celebrations were held by the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Hebrews, the Chinese, and the Egyptians.
Isla Cerralvo, sudcaliforniana por nacimiento, conocida por los primeros españoles como ‘La Isla de las Perlas’. Ubicada a 16 km al frente de la Bahía La Ventana, 65 km de la ciudad de La Paz, siendo la más sureña de las islas de la Baja. Cuenta con una longitud de 30 km y su historia se remonta a los tiempos de los primeros pobladores de la Baja, Guaycuras que vagaban por sus costas en sencillas canoas de tronco vaciado, de ahí su apodo común de ‘Vagabundos del Mar’.
Hogar de leyendas e historias, de abundantes perlas y de miles de especies de diferente tipo de vida marina, aves y mamíferos, y una flora constituida principalmente por matorrales, pero que en épocas de lluvia se convierte en un verdadero paraíso verde. Isla coronada con sus profundas aguas de azul intenso.
Sitio perfecto para el buceo por sus cañones submarinos ubicados a los largo de su litoral, refugios naturales del tiburón martillo y las mantarrayas gigantes, que acompañan al aventurero en su recorrido por las profundidades. Área privilegiada para la pesca, tanto comercial, como deportiva. De igual manera ‘centro’ de estudios e investigaciones.
Isla orgullo de humildes pescadores de la región, de visitantes, locales, nacionales y extranjeros, ahora ostentará presuntuosa el nombre de Jacques Cousteau, en honor al explorador francés conocido por los documentales de sus investigaciones sobre la vida marina. Orgullo que desafortunadamente no compartirá con nadie.
Molestia e indignación es lo que ha causado la decisión autoritaria y sin sentido del Ejecutivo Federal de cambiar el nombre de esta isla. No hay explicación alguna sobre la decisión. ¿Quién fue quién inició la propuesta? ¿Por qué fue autorizada? Es obvio que desconocen el interés y arraigo que la isla tiene para los locales. Para la identidad de la región. Ahora le cambian el nombre por el de un francés. Nada personal contra él o su país de origen, simplemente la decisión es estúpida, sin fundamento e irracional.
Gerardo de Dominicis dijo “…que el Gobierno de México pida al de Francia que la Isla Clipperton, que nos robaron, la rebauticen como isla Francisco King”. No es una solicitud tan descabellada considerando el tema que ahora nos ocupa.
¿Pero qué nos queda por hacer si son una bola de representantes inútiles los que toman las decisiones? Decisiones como esta, que buscan quedar con no sé quién, sin consultar a sus ‘representados’. Eso no existe, llegan al poder y el glamur de la política mexicana los encandila. No queda más que denunciarlos, a ellos y a sus actos ignorantes ante cualquier foro. Conservar la memoria. Algo tendremos que hacer. Mientras me voy de paseo a la Isla Jacques Cousteau.
Halloween, or Hallowe'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and carving jack-o-lanterns. The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day", also which is now known as All Saints' Day. Some modern Halloween traditions developed out of older pagan traditions, especially surrounding the Irish holiday Samhain, a day associated both with the harvest and otherworldly spirits. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the Western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom and occasionally in parts of Australia and New Zealand.
Many European cultural traditions, in particular Celtic cultures, hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent (according to, for example, Catalan mythology about witches and Scottish and Irish tales of the Sídhe).
History
The modern holiday of Halloween has its origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain (pronounced /ˈsˠaunʲ/ from the Old Irish samain). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes erroneously regarded as the "Celtic New Year". Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them. When the Romans occupied Celtic territory, several Roman traditions were also incorporated into the festivals. Feralia, a day celebrated in late October by the Romans for the passing of the dead as well as a festival which celebrated the Roman Goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit were incorporated into the celebrations. The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which is a proposed origin for the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
History of name
The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day", also which is now known as All Saints' Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.
Symbols
Jack-o'-lanterns are often carved into silly or scary faces.The carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols. This is a Scottish and Irish tradition of carving a lantern which goes back centuries. These lanterns are usually carved from a turnip or swede (or more uncommonly a mangelwurzel). The carving of pumpkins was first associated with Halloween in North America, where the pumpkin was available, and much larger and easier to carve. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their home's doorstep after dark.
The jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard drinking old farmer who tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and trapped him by carving a cross into the trunk of the tree. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack which dooms him to forever wander the earth at night. For centuries, the bedtime parable was told by Irish parents to their children. But in America the tradition of carving pumpkins is known to have preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration, and the tradition of carving vegetable lanterns may also have been brought over by the Scottish or English; documentation is unavailable to establish when or by whom. The carved pumpkin was associated generally with harvest time in America, and did not become specifically associated with Halloween until the mid to late 19th century.
The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, magic, or mythical monsters. Common Halloween characters include ghosts, ghouls, witches, vampires, bats, owls, crows, vultures, haunted houses, pumpkinmen, black cats, aliens, spiders, goblins, zombies, mummies, skeletons, and demons. Particularly in America, symbolism is inspired by classic horror films, which contain fictional figures like Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and The Mummy. More modern horror antagonists like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Leatherface, Jason Voorhees, and the Jigsaw Killer have also become associated with the holiday. Homes are often decorated with these symbols around Halloween.
Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween.
Day of The Dead Mexico celebrates a yearly tradition called Day of the Dead during the last days of October and the first days of November. Due to the duration of this festivity and the way people get involved it has been called “The Cult of Death.”
As in many Latin American countries, Mexico commemorates the Day of the Dead or All Souls’ Day on November 2nd. The legacy of past civilizations is graphically manifested on this occasion through people’s beliefs that death is a transition from one life to another in different levels where communication exists between the living and the dead. This communication takes place once a year throughout the country.
Differing from the Roman Catholic imposed ritual to commemorate All Souls’ Day, which is observed in many countries, the custom established by pre-colonial Mexican civilizations become a ceremony where indigenous beliefs blended with Catholic beliefs. Therefore, the Day of the Dead in Mexico is not a mournful commemoration but a happy and colorful celebration where death takes a lively, friendly expression.
Indigenous people believed that souls did not die, that they continued living in Mictlan, a special place to rest. In this place, the spirits rest until the day they could return to their homes to visit their relatives. Before the Spaniards arrived, they celebrated the return of the souls between the months of July and August. Once arrived, the Spaniards changed the festivities to November 2nd to coincide with All Souls’ Day of the Catholic Church.
Presently, two celebrations honoring the memory of loved ones who have died take place: On November 1st, the souls of the children are honored with special designs in the altars, using color white on flowers and candles. On November 2nd the souls of the adults are remembered with a variety of rituals, according to the different states of the Mexican republic.
The celebrations of Day of the Dead or All Souls Day are referred to differently in some of the states. For example in Yucatan it is known as Hanal Pixan which means “The path of the soul through the essence of food;” in the highlands of Michoacan it is known as Jimbanqua or the party honoring with flowers the people who died that year; in San Luis Potosi, Hidalgo and in the southern part of Oaxaca it is known as Xantolo and Day of the Dead in the majority of Mexico. Whatever name is given, this is an ancestral tradition that blended with Catholicism to create a special time and space to remember and honor the loved ones by offering them an ofrenda, the fragrance of the flowers, the light of the candles, the aroma of special foods and the solemnity of prayers. It is also a time to joke and make fun of death through “calaveras”, poetry allusive to a particular person, generally politicians; sugar, chocolate and amaranth skulls which are given to one another with their friend’s name so “they can eat their own death” and special crafts allusive to different aspects of the living, with skeletons representing daily activities.
People start getting ready for the celebration on the third week of October with the harvesting of the cempasuchitl flower, also known as the flower of the twenty petals or the flower of the dead which is sold in the market place or Tianguis, where the family goes to buy everything that they will need to put on the altar. On the altar they will place the ofrendas of fruits, vegetables and the special dishes prepared for the soul to enjoy the essence of the aroma of the food. This altar will also have items that once belonged to the deceased.
On November 1st in many towns the ritual of the Vigil of the Little Angels takes place in the cemeteries, particularly in the islands of Janitzio and La Pacanda in Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan. Little girls dressed in satin blouses and colored skirts, white stockings and shiny shoes are the center of this ceremony. Wearing the white pinafore, an important piece of the Tarascan feminine attire, the girls calmly comply with the tradition while they are observed from a certain distance by their parents. This is the way the tradition is passed down from generation to generation.
On November 2nd, the souls of the adults are honored in their homes with beautifully decorated altars. Each state has different styles but all of them represent a place where the ofrenda becomes a spiritual communion between life and death. Again, in each state the making of the altar and the rituals are different.
The celebration concludes in many towns with the vigil in the cemetery. In some places the vigil is done during the whole night of November 1st to November 2nd. In other towns the vigil is done during the day. Mysticism is the rule in the cemeteries, but in many of them music is also part of the ritual that combines religious prayers with the sounds of the trumpet playing a tune by a Mariachi band. In others it is a trio that sings a song by the tomb or in some cases even a band plays danzones at the entrance of the cemetery. Ritualistic dances are also part of the celebrations in many places honoring the deceased.
Whichever way is celebrated, Day of the Dead is a time of reflection about the meaning of life and the mission that one needs to fulfill. Death in many situations imparts a feeling of pain and loss, particularly for those who do not know the purpose of their path on this earthly plane. For others, death is transcendence, transformation and resurrection. During the celebration of Day of the Dead all those feelings and beliefs come together in a season that brings to life the memory of the loved ones.
WHY? is our gazette at Instituto de Inglés América Published for English and Spnish Language Students who want to practice and improve their language skills. Instituto de Inglés América Centro de Difusión Cultural. Cursos de Inglés
Observe las fotografías del concurso en el link que se indica en el recuadro de la derecha y envíe un mensaje de correo electrónico (un mensaje por cada dirección de coreo electrónico), a la dirección iameryk@gmail.com con el mensaje:
Inicio de Nuevos Cursos Proximo Lunes Instituto de Inglés “América” Clave SEP 03PBT0061Y Centro de Difusión Cultural Desde 1980 Héroes de IndependenciaNo. 1935 e/ Bravo y Rosales. La Paz B.C.S. Mexico. E-mail iameryk@yahoo.com Tel: (612) 122-43-87 y 123-47-19 ~ Fax 123-51-92 La Paz – Cabo San Lucas - San José de Cabo – Pescadero Todos Santos
Inicio de Cursos de InglésPara: Niños (desde los 5 años), Jóvenes, y Adultos
PRINCIPIANTES, INTERMEDIOS Y AVANZADOS Horarios FlexiblesMatutino, Vespertino y Nocturno Sábados: 4 horas (semi-intensivo)
Regularización para Exámenes, Exámenes de Nivel y Certificación, Club de Conversación, Cursos Intensivos y de Actualización, Spanish Lessons / Español para Extranjeros, Servicio de Internet y Cafetería, Horarios Flexibles, Seguridad y Experiencia.
INSCRIPCIONES ABIERTAS Solicite Informes a los Tels: (612) 122-43-87 , 123-51-92 y 123-47-19
CLUB DE CONVERSACION CONVERSATION CLUB We invite you to our Conversation Clubs, every Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Friday at 9 a.m. This is a free service for our students, graduate students and friends. Just bring some snacks or soft drink, and of course, a topic to talk about.
Instituto de Inglés “América” Clave SEP 03PBT0061Y Héroes de Independencia No. 1935 e/ Bravo y Rosales La Paz B. C. S. México.
Desde 1980 La Paz – Cabo San Lucas – Pescadero ~ Todos Santos
DIRECTOR GENERAL
Profr. Joel Antonio Estamates Arroyo
SUBDIRECTOR GENERAL
Profr. José Antonio Avilés Cosio
COORDINADOR ACADEMICO
Profr. Jesus Benjamin Acosta Castro
CONTADOR GENERAL
Profr. Gerardo Felix Acosta Peña
RESPOSABLE PLANTEL PESCADERO
Profr. Joel antonio Estamates Gavarain
COORDINADORES DE CLUB DE CONVERSACION
Profra. Teresita Monteverde Barrancas
Profra. Malissa Meza Ojeda
Profr. Daniel Fort
EVENTOS ESPECIALES
Profra. Margarita Novoa Garcia
SEGURIDAD Y MANTENIMIENTO
Profr. Renato Gerardo Cabanillas
