They criticize the municipal charge of $30 per person in the cemetery for six days, and the Commune of Hecelchakán defends itself
The famous Campeche town of Pomuch invites you to celebrate the deceased on Friday, October 31 with more than 13 hours of activities.
Pomuch es famous for its Pomuch bread or pigeon bread y for his ancestral ritual of cleaning the skeletal remains of their deceasedwork that It started this Friday, October 24 as part of the preparations to celebrate the deceased.
However, the celebrations of the deceased in Pomuch They are already facing their first controversies for municipal charges in two activities, about 30 pesos for entering the cemetery to see the cleaning of bones, a fee that, for some, turns an ancestral ritual into a commercial product.
Located in the Camino Real106 kilometers southwest of Merida, Pomuch It is a town of Hecelchakanmunicipality of Campechewhich – according to Inegi– It has 9,607 neighbors (4,856 women and 4,751 men) and 3,061 homesof which 2,551 (83.3%) are inhabited.
In the organization of the festival Authorities, volunteers, artisans, other producers and artists from Campeche, Hecelchakán and Pomuch participate, according to the event’s Facebook page.
Pomuch invites to its festival of the deceased
According to the program, the Day of the Dead Festival: Pomuch for the World 2025 “A place that lives for its dead” will start at 9 in the morning with the inauguration of a photo stop in the main square of the town.
At 10:15 a.m. will be inaugurated “Plastic Artists of Campeche” Gallery in the bottom of the Palace of the Municipal Board.
The celebration will then move to sports fieldwhere at 10:30 am will be installed Nojoch Altar, that artisans and residents of Pomuch began to build this Friday the 24th.
In the same field and on 15-A Streetat 11 a.m., Kiwik will begin, a mercado outdoors.
Host school
In turn, Pablo García primary school will host five hours of the following 11 activities:
11-12 of the day. Presentation of the books “Bone Beautifiers”from the Yucatecan journalist Paul Antoine Matos, y “In Day of the Day of Yimbal’s Day on Days” (Sun Greetings) Dr. Manuel Sosa Quintal.
“Bone Beautifiers”which It was presented in Mérida in 2023consists of 25 chapters with stories from the country that range from the Day of the Dead to Mayan rites or the problems of citizens with assaults, says the review of the journalist Alba Otero.
11-13 hours. Lectern reading “Everything is dead”work of Mar Zechariah winner of the National Award for Children’s Plays in 1992.
In “Everything is dead”the human skeletons and the characters, “not completely dead,” play with their own bones and speak from the unknown world, the Aztec Mictlán, but now with a humanly everyday touch, he says a public synopsis of the workwhich also “presents the passages of a smiling and gluttonous death that nostalgically recalls the pre-Hispanic past full of imagination.”
Activities on bone cleaning in Pomuch
From 1 to 4 in the afternoon, People will be able to choose between the last eight activities. The first will be the Workshop “Yáax in cho’ik baak” (My first bone cleaning).
There will also be six conferenceslike “Choo Baak” (Bone Cleansing)of the Dr. Lázaro Hilario Tuz Chi.
Also “Process of declaring the cleansing of the holy remains, funeral ritual of the Pomuch community”of the historian Josefa Elydé Osorio Medina, director of the General Archive of the State of Campeche.
“The sound trousseau of the underworld, whistles and figurines as ritual guides from Jaina, Campeche”of the Arqueloga Adriana Vázquez Morlet.
“The jipijapa hat, popular art, woven in the bowels of Calkiní, Campeche“, of Tatiana Macossay Arteagaformer Campeche Tourism official.
“The taste of memory: culinary practices on the Camino Real in the context of Hanal Pixán”of the anthropologist Harold Fernando Amábilis Zetina.
Y “The ceiba and the green cross like the Mayan Cosmos before and after the encounter between natives and Europeans”in charge of the Dra. Lorraine Williams Beck.
In addition, the documentary will be presented “A link between the living and the dead, the Cho’Baak: an ancestral tradition in Pomuch, Campeche”of Land Amaker Beach Manager Guellograduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Archeology from the Autonomous University of Campeche.
They criticize that an ancestral ritual becomes a commercial product
By the way, the Organizing Committee of the Festival This week he distanced himself “from any charge to be made inside the Pomuch cemetery for the cleaning of skeletal remains”.
“It is a private and intimate event, we do not consider it correct to reduce it to a commercial product as some authorities are beginning to do without knowledge of the violation of sacred and private spaces,” he stated.
This is how he alluded to the poster of the Hecelchakán City Council, that heads Joseph Cevastián Yam Pootoriginally from Pomuch and emanated from the party Citizen Movementwhich reports on the charge of 30 pesos per person for seven daysfrom Friday, October 24 to Thursday, October 30.
“If the inhabitants of the town of Pomuch decide to share with visitors and locals the ritual, they have the right and are free to do so,” the Festival Organizing Committeel.
“But We do not consider it correct that any authority charges for the cleaning of the Holy Remains and less in the Cemetery thus prostituting something so sublime and mystical,” he said.
In the face of criticism, the common responded that does not seek to profit or appropriate the ancestral tradition of Pomuchbut the collection is a recovery fee symbolic intended for the residents of Pomuch.
Another municipal charge and street closure in Pomuch
Additionally, the same City hall charge to get on the Tram of Remembrancewhich passes before him Pomuch cemetery and other sitesfrom Friday, October 24 to Friday, October 31: $50 for locals and $100 for foreigners. At least a bakery He already clarified that it is not part of this ride that he charges.
Likewise, this October 24th the common warned that Calle 12 of Pomuch (from 15 to 29) It will be closed from 10 pm on Monday the 27th and until 6 am on Tuesday the 28th for the preparations for the Vaquería de las Animas what will be done in that section Thursday 30.
Three activities at 4 in the afternoon
The festive day in the primary will conclude with the representation “My soul is here”, from 4 to 6 in the afternoon.
In fact, visitors will have to choose between three activities that will begin at 4 p.m.
On the sports field will start workshops pottery and cardboard (with recovery fee), which will end at 8 pm, and on a stage will begin a regional dairy, enlivened by the Origest about Noah No..
Altars of Hanal Pixán
At 5 pm will start Altar Competition with offerings for the dead sports field.
While, on stagethere will be three activities, such as the presentation of the “Maya Pax” Children’s Orchestra at 5:25 p.m.
At 5:30 p.m. The Campeche Institute will present its altar of the deadwith explanations in Spanish and English, in the main park kiosk.
Fifteen minutes later you can enjoy the dance “The warrior and death” on stage.
Pixanes Walk
He Pixanes Walk will come out of cementerio de Pomuch at 6 pm and will tour the Causeway of the Dead.
Also from the 6 pm, on stagethey will present the choreography “Roots of my land”he Folkloric Ballet “Traditions and customs of the Ah Canul, Mayan dances” and the choreography “Ánimas de Ixchel (Mayan goddess of the moon, fertility and medicine)”.
From 6:30 to 9:15 pm, in the “Los Cocos” garden, located on 15th street, every 40 minutes it will be staged “I lively remember”. Entry with recovery fee.
While from 6:40 to 7:10 pm will be put on stage “The Xtabay”, spoken in Mayan, at the train station.
The arrival of the pixans
On stage, at 6:45 p.m. there will be music alluding to the Day of the Dead, a the festival will open at 7 and at 7:15 the Paseo de Pixanes will enter.
At 8 at night will begin the last activity in the sports field: delivery of offering and prayer for the late Bernabé Euán Euán.
The closing of the festival of the deceased in Pomuch
He festival de Pomuch will conclude on stage, with eight activities: at 8:15 p.m., and Pok Ta Pok ball game y from 9:05 to 9:30 pmwill be presented the “Ánimas” choreographies“A dance together, until after death” and “Day of the Dead in the town of Pomuch”.
At 9:35 p.m.at the end of the dances, the awards.
Then, at 9:45 the Tabasco musical group Son Acústica will play “To live again”.
At 10:05 will enter the scene Mariachi Los Tequileros.
He Revelation group, from Pomuch, will have the honor of closing the festival, starting at 10:15 at nightwith the concert “Pigeon bread”.
In that way, Pomuch will offer a marathon day which will test the resistance of local and foreign residents and visitors who come to celebrate the deceased.