Some days after Day of the Dead

[yinyangwizard]

[Millitimed to earlier in November. Sorry, I forgot.]

Abe no Seimei saunters in through the Front Door with a sack over his shoulder and a new article of clothing - a black bolero jacket embroidered with a pattern of Mexican marigolds.

He heads to the Bar first and greets her in the usual way, then sets the sack on her surface and opens it. He starts taking out various items he collected in his most recent expedition - loaves of fluffy bread, bottles of milky white liquid, boxes of brightly colored candy skulls.

Comments

[undead_radish_seller]

"What are these things?" Wen Ning asks, sidling up towards the bar and Seimei.

[yinyangwizard]

“Wen Ning! It has been a while.” Some months, by Seimei’s reckoning, although it may or may not have been the same for Wen Ning. “I have recently come from the Day of the Dead, the Mexican ancestor festival, and have brought some of their celebratory offerings.”

He takes a little pot of marigolds out of the sack. One would expect the potting soil to have fallen out or the flowers to be crushed from being transported in such a careless way, but the flowers are quite undamaged.

[undead_radish_seller]

"Those are flowers to celebrate the dead?" Wen Ning asks. "Is it like the ghost festival in August where we are from?"

[yinyangwizard]

“It is rather like that! The Mexicans do not have permanent ancestor shrines like we do, though. They build altars called offrendas in their houses for the festival, and make roads of flowers from the graveyards to the offrendas so their loved ones can come celebrate with them.” He pats the little pot of marigolds, gently.

“Also they do not burn joss paper or have the elders of the family give goats to the grandsons and nephews. I have seen them do floating lanterns, though.”

[undead_radish_seller]

"The flowers are so sweet and small, neither grandiose nor spooky," Wen Ning says. "I like that."

[yinyangwizard]

“The Day of the Dead is not spooky, morbid, or solemn at all - although the celebrations can be very lavish.”

And sometimes it can get a little melancholy, as people remember loved ones who are no longer with them. It gets downright maudlin when they are deep in their cups.

“It it all rather merry and good-spirited. They have special poems! People write joking epitaphs for each other. One old grandmother recited such a poem her husband wrote her, when they were courting, that was rather suggestive and very funny. Or I think it was, I had drunk quite a bit at the time.”

[undead_radish_seller]

"We stage special plays to entertain the dead; do those Mexicans so that as well?" Wen Ning asks.

[yinyangwizard]

“I have not seen this, but there may be some places in Mexico with such a custom. There are certainly pageants, though, where everyone dresses like colorful skeleton people, and carnivals and music.”

The visiting spirits certainly don’t lack for entertainment!

[undead_radish_seller]

Wen Ning picks up the marigold and sniffs at it. "Spirit attract flowers," he says. "I like the idea."

[mogget_cat]

A soft weight brushes against Seimei's ankles briefly, mwrring a quiet greeting, before the ghost-white not'cat springs up onto a bar stool and from there to the counter top to investigate the various items there.

[yinyangwizard]

“Ah, Yrael-sama! I brought souvenirs especially for you.” Seimei rummages around in the sack and takes out a skull-shaped bottle of silver tequila with green eyes and a sweet-smelling loaf of glazed bread.

“Going to Mexico for the Day of the Dead this year was a last minute decision,” he explains, stroking Yrael’s fur, “but next time, I really must take you with me. You would enjoy it very much.”

[mogget_cat]

"Prrt!" The not'cat's ears perk in interest as he investigates the gifts, purring. "A kind thought; they will be much enjoyed. Thank you."

"The Day of the Dead celebrations would be a sight to see," he adds, intrigued by the offer. "There are some few who celebrate it so far north as New Orleans, though the city adds its own influence as it always does." And it has to compete with Halloween, which is its own special time in such a city of edges.

"It would be something special to experience. Would you tell me about it?"

[yinyangwizard]

“It is in some ways a lot like our people’s Obon Festival - people visit their family graves and welcome the spirits of their loved ones back to their family altars. Although the ofrendas are temporary - not like the altars we have.”

Many families have a little household altar in an alcove. Wealthier families may devote a whole room of the house to altars and memorial plaques.

“Obon is quite a cheerful affair, but I think the Mexicans would find it quite stuffy compared to their festivities.”

[mogget_cat]

"There are differing degrees of effusiveness," chuckles the thing that is not a cat. "Though such festivals are fascinating to me."

There are many reasons New Orleans has ever appealed to him.

"In the Old Kingdom, mwrrr, no one would welcome spirits back across the borders between Life and Death," he says, the tip of his long tail curling to one side and then the other, "apart from the necromancers who have some use to put them to. The people would be more likely to celebrate the continued peaceful lack of spirits."

The return of their family members' spirits would would be ill tidings, at best.

[yinyangwizard]

“Your River, after all, flows in only one direction.”

No, the people of the Old Kingdom would not have a holiday like Obon or the Day of the Dead. They would probably be horrified at the concept.

“There is nothing really necromantic about either holiday - although someone with skill in necromancy might be busy during that time, in case something unwelcome came back.” Seimei sighs. “It is difficult to simply relax and celebrate Obon like an ordinary person for that reason.”

[mogget_cat]

"I imagine unwanted attention can be a side-effect of such... high-spirited festivals," he smiles, curious and not sorry for the pun. "One would hope such party-crashers are rare, however. To feel safe welcoming the spirits of one's loved ones, one must be sure they are actually the spirits one seeks to welcome home."

"What is done to quell those spirits that come unbidden and seek to cause mischief?"

Mischief being the mildest word for it.

[yinyangwizard]

“It is usually not that anything is looking to cause trouble. It is simply the nature of ghosts.”

Or, rather, of people, compounded by being dead and adrift.

“People become attached to things they should not, and maintain those attachments even when they suffer greatly for it. They are easily frightened and confused. Especially when they are not in a place where they fit - not in their proper context. Dead people are the same, but more so.”

[old_monster]

"Oh, food!"

That's Ye Baiyi, coming up to the bar to see what Seimei is unpacking.

[yinyangwizard]

“Ah, Lao Ye!” Seimei greets him. He is not surprised that Ye Baiyi would be drawn by novel food and drink. (If you told him Ye Baiyi had a sixth sense for this sort of thing, he would believe you.)

“I have just been to Mexico, where they had their ancestor festival. Like we have ours in August, they have theirs in November.”

He pulls a marigold-shaped loaf of bread and a bottle of tequila from the sack.

“They have special foods that they make for the festival, and an ancient drink called pulque that, I think, ought to be much more popular than it is.”

[old_monster]

"Qingming-xiong," Ye Baiyi says, one immortal being informal with another.

"That flower bread looks fun! And does the drink make you drunk?"

Not a prerequisite for drink (Baiyi has come to love boba tea, here), but a fun bonus.

[yinyangwizard]

“Pulque will get you drunk, but you have to drink rather a lot of it.” It isn’t nearly as strong as rice wine. It has approximately the alcohol content of a mass-market beer.

“The bread is sweet like bao, but a bit eggier and crustier. They bake it into all sorts of shapes.”

Seimei starts going through the sack again, looking for vessels to drink the pulque.

[old_monster]

"So, hopefully, it tastes nice," Ye Baiyi says. That's the disadvantage of beer -- both taste and alcohol content are a bit low.

[yinyangwizard]

“It tastes both sweet and sour at the same time, like fruit just getting ripe.” Seimei finds two terracotta mugs, glazed deep blue inside. He fills them from one of the bottles he has already taken from his sack.

“The ancient Aztecs, it seems, enjoyed drinks with very complex flavors.”

[old_monster]

"Who were these people?" Ye Baiyi asks.

[yinyangwizard]

“The empire that ruled what is now Mexico, before the Europeans colonized it. Though I mourn the loss of many old cultures the Europeans wiped out, I think it is perhaps best that they are gone, because they were just as bad if not worse. They performed human sacrifice for their gods.”

Seimei offers one of the mugs of pulque to Ye Baiyi.