The Santa Muerte cult pop the public on all saints day in 2001 – Now it is Latin America's fastest growing religion

no One can say for sure where it all started.

the drug barons of the closed haciendo in it I guess was worshipped already in the 1990s. Reportedly it was the politicians, with homes found for sanctified altars. Rumored to be a movie star, who secretly requested its help.

Santa Muerte, the skeleton saint, the death cult, i.e. in the shadows until 2001, all saints ' day time, a modest housewife from Mexico City came up to erect an altar in their homes to the foreground.

Now, the Santa Muerte cult is estimated to be the size of Latin America's fastest growing religion. It's got a million followers, maybe even 12 million. The exact number is impossible to know, because the cult does not actually join.

Catholic church Santa Muerte heresy and the Mexican government to try to root it, inter alia, by destroying the bulldozer along major highways can second-hand the altars. To no avail.

James Bond adventure the day of the Dead carnival in Mexico City. MGM Studios/ Colmbia Pictures.Death is the Mexican symbol

Santa Muerte triumph begins all saints day, the mexican Dia de los Muertos, day of the Dead.

the Ongoing three-day celebration is mexico's largest, most colorful and loudest fiesta, with the participation of all. Also thousands of tourists, as the festival is also the tourist season climax.

– impressive. All were on the move, around the clock. The cemetery and town. Light, music, flowers. The atmosphere was magical.

This describes the action anthropologist Emmi huhta cape, which a few years ago, followed by a celebration with friends in Mexico City.

Many people have seen a glimpse of the vibrant celebration of the latest James Bond intros. Bond is dressed in a skeleton suit and his companions could be La Muerte – mexico's best-known symbol of death.

Many of the Death's day parade participant dressed La muerte your.Mario Guzman / EPA

Death related symbols are important in Mexico. When you visit a country, the death kuvastolta can't avoid.

the Mexican identity, I hear a playful, intimate relationship to death. There is something the same as the Finnish sisu – the death laugh at reflects the kind of resistance to the power point, huhta niemi explains.

the history of Mexico is full of death. Asteekeilla had their own death rituals, not to mention the Spanish conquerors, the indigenous peoples caused by the mass death of.

the Mexican state in the creation of the 1800s, the death hallinnoinin have played an important role. Death was pretty much the only thing that unites the people – the blood of the enemy, the Spanish background of the upper class and the poor indian population.

And as in Finland, also in Mexico, the artists participated in the renationalisation of the top of it. Where Gallen-Kallela and Järnefeltit image to Kol or the Kalevala, painted by the mexican artist death-topics. Catrina-this character was born cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada the pen. Graceful character also appeared in the world famous Diego Rivera muraaleista. Death pop.

Mariachi-callers of the world's biggest Santa Muerte statue in Mexico City.José Méndez / EPAKovat times appear a saint in a cult

Santa Muerte, the death symbolizes the female figure, reminiscent of La Catrina, but there is however something else.

where Catrina is a sympathetic caricature, is Santa Muerte rude revelation. Mexico City, the rugged lower side located on the world's biggest Santa Muerte statue, 22-feet of concrete block, is mostly scary. Impression of the effects the knowledge that its able user was shot to death with a statue nearby, apparently for drug trafficking-fledged strike. The perpetrators have not been caught.

the Santa Muerte cult is a clear link mexico to shake the volatile drug war. In the country have been murdered in recent years, tens of thousands of people and death is present in everyday life. Hard times are also displayed in the attitude of saints.

– Mexico City, almost every block has been the patron saint of the virgin of Guadalupe shrine. Recently, the city's poorest areas, many of the altar of the saint, the statue has been changed to Santa Muerte, huhta cape tell.

the war on Drugs has eroded confidence in the state. In mexico there are areas where the actual power of drug cartels. At the same time when the secular power has proved to be weak, has begun to question the church and the patron saint of the offered security.

Many mexican experience is that formal power no longer manage the situation. Santa Muerte instead can rely on, because death is equal.

Enriqueta Romero pitched the first Santa Muerte -altar in their homes to the foreground in 2001.Jenny Rebich / Alamy Live News / aops and Muerte will be asked for help

the Santa Muerte cult left margin. Its followers were criminals, but also their war against the police. Also the so-called legal in the margin in lived groups, such as the extreme poor, single mothers and sexual minorities experience Santa Muerte close.

When Santa Muerte is generalized, it is its proponents of a raw battery jacket mainstream sat. Now Santa Muerte adherents can also be found from the usual urban working population of the.

Their relationship to Santa Muerte is quite practical. A saint asked a variety of things: money, love, health. Hope the realization will boost the variety of gifts, such as candles. The most popular is the red candle, a symbol of love.

– Mexican saints are important. They are perceived as close. And you can tell them everyday things and unloaded heart. They can also ask for help, Emmi huhta niemi explains.

the followers actually liked Santa Muerte saint. Worship resemble the catholic tradition, though the tone is a little bit of street cred. The statue in front including smoke several marijuana cigarette.

Some are asking Santa Muerte also bad things, like revenge. Its sign lit black candle.

Is Santa Muerte worship about serving?

More equality. A Santa Muerte dedicated prayer, I think, sums up something essential: "you Are all children of the mother, because everything that begins also ends. We believe in you, because you're fair, because you take as well as from the rich that the poor, young and old", huhta niemi said.

the Pope's judgment

the Catholic church the situation is in any case troublesome. Mexico is the world's second-largest catholic country, but the churches are empty. In Latin America, the wider catholic church support has been in a downward trend.

the vast Majority of Santa Muerte adherents the catholic church, and they don't see the contradiction. If the church condemns the cult of the sharp rhetoric, there is a risk of mass exodus.

on the other Hand, Latin America is full of cults, who serve the catholic church around. Folk catholicism has always been synkretististä, and it is mixed with local beliefs and characters. For example, the current pope's homeland, Argentina, Santa Muerte resembles a death cult, which the catholic church is not lacking.

for Many it was a surprise when pope Francis Mexico, during a visit in 2016, denounced the Santa Muerte worship sharply. The pope considered it a heresy, and drug dealers as a religion.

Santa Muerte -the cult of wrote american Andrew Chesnuttin (you move to another service), according to the pope's reaction tell you three things: Santa Muerte's popularity growth has been so rapid, that the catholic church is experiencing its actual threat. On the other hand, the death worship is the church's point of view close to satanism. Chesnutt also reminded that the current pope has become known as intense as a drug as an opponent, so the narco of the favored character is to him an abomination.

see also:

Mexico laugh at death images (you move to another service)

the day of the Dead imagery appears in an ancient aztec goddess figure – death can also smile and seduce

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