Episode 0158

Hello everyone and welcome back to English Pod. My name is Marco.

Exactly, and very closely related to our Halloween lesson that we had, but on this occasion we're going to be looking at All Saints Day.

Alright, so this is a festival that's celebrated in many different countries, and we're learning today about some of the ceremonies and practices in those countries that are very closely tied to those local cultures.

Exactly. So, we're going to learn a little bit about culture and at the same time we're going to learn some great words and phrases, so let's get started with this dialogue for the first time.

The Day of the Dead has arrived.

All Souls Day and All Saints Day.

Your neighbor is crazy. Why is he screaming that?

Because today is the first of November, the Day of the Dead.

Oh, that's right.

This is a very special day among many cultures around the world, especially in Latin America.

Seriously?

I thought it was just like any other day, except for the fact that people visit the cemetery and remember their loved ones.

Well, that's just part of it. People across the world celebrate in different ways.

In Mexico, for example, it's common to see people building private altars, honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, preparing the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

In the Philippines, the tombs are cleaned or repainted. Candles are lit and flowers are offered.

Entire families camp out in cemeteries and sometimes spend a night or two near the relatives' tombs.

Whoa, that's scary. I don't know if I could do that.

Why? We should fear the living, not the dead.

And we're back. So, um, did you know about these traditions in the Philippines and in Mexico?

I know about the Mexican ones because there's a lot of Mexicans where I come from in Chicago, and they still celebrate these things. Um, but I didn't know about the Philippines, so I found this really interesting.

Interesting, right?

Uh, actually, yeah, the Philippines, as well as Mexico, are very Catholic countries, so maybe that's one of the reasons why they have such a, they have these events that are so important for their culture.

I'm sure, yeah.

Alright, so, uh, before we start talking a little bit more about the the culture, why don't we take a look at language takeaway?

Language Takeaway.

Alright, the first word is a very common word, especially if you're a churchgoing person. The word is altar.

Okay, and an altar. An altar.

It's a thing.

It's a thing and an altar is usually found inside a church as you said, right?

That's right.

So, it's like a...

Table. It's like a table.

Or a counter.

So the altar in the church is where the priest does all of the the stuff that he does during the mass.

It's where he prepares the bread and the wine and uh it's essentially a table, yeah.

But you can build an altar for yourself in your garden, for example, right?

And it doesn't have to do with the Catholic religion, it's a...

No, not necessarily. You could have an altar in a Greek pagan temple where you give offerings to a god or goddess. And so in this case an altar is a special religious table where you perform certain religious rites or functions.

Okay, very interesting.

Alright, and uh so it's common in Mexico for people to build private altars honoring the deceased.

So what is this word deceased?

Alright, deceased is a noun, it's a it's a word uh that we use to call someone who's dead or departed.

So, um, the deceased was named John Smith.

So it's like a more technical term of saying somebody is dead.

Right, and it's something that you'll often read in the newspaper when they don't want to say the dead guy. You know, they say the deceased was uh a doctor and he is survived by three children. And so deceased is a way to describe a person in a in a nice way.

Right, very good. The deceased.

And you mentioned another word that's very closely related to deceased, the departed.

That's right, and this is actually a famous word because of a Martin Scorsese movie that came out about two years ago.

And uh departed, uh you know the word to depart, to leave. A person that is a departed is someone who has left us. It's a it's a Yeah, it's a dead person.

So you can say the deceased or the departed, which basically means the same thing as the dead guy or the dead person.

Exactly, but again, it's much more polite. It's something that we hear often at funerals or that we read in magazines.

Okay. So, for example, All Saints Day is a way of honoring the departed.

Exactly, very nice sounding.

Yeah, it sounds better.

Alright, so talking a little bit more about the departed and the traditions, it says here that many Mexicans use sugar skulls or have sugar skulls during this festivity.

That's right. So a skull is the bones from a person's head.

Alright? And so you can you can often see these on um for example, pirate ships, we say skull and crossbones. And so it's the bones from a head and you have the the bones underneath.

And it's a very popular image on Halloween because it's scary.

But um a skull is essentially the bones from a head.

So it's like a person's head without the skin, eyes, lips, everything, right?

Right, it's scary because it has empty black spaces where the eyes are supposed to be and you can see all the teeth.

But nothing else.

What about the sugar skulls? What are these they're skulls made of sugar?

That's right. And so they look like skulls because there's no cheeks and no they're not really um there's no skin or eyes.

Alright, and one of the many traditions apart from sugar skulls and building private altars, they also visit the person's tomb, if possible, right?

Exactly. So a tomb is uh an important word.

So what is a tomb?

A tomb is a place where someone is buried.

It's a it's a space or a place.

Um, and it can be big or small, but uh it's essentially the resting place of a dead person.

Alright.

So a tomb where the person is. And actually, on the tomb you have the tombstone, right?

That's right, and a tombstone is the same as a gravestone and it it's uh it's a piece of rock on which you write the name and the birth date and the death date of the person that is buried there.

Right. So that's the tombstone.

Okay, so um an interesting amount of words here on language takeaway. Why don't we listen to this dialogue again and we'll be right back with fluency builder.

Your neighbor is crazy. Why is he screaming that?

Because today is the first of November, the Day of the Dead.

Oh, that's right.

This is a very special day among many cultures around the world, especially in Latin America.

Seriously?

I thought it was just like any other day, except for the fact that people visit the cemetery and remember their loved ones.

Well, that's just part of it. People across the world celebrate in different ways.

In Mexico, for example, it's common to see people building private altars, honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, preparing the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

In the Philippines, the tombs are cleaned or repainted. Candles are lit and flowers are offered.

Entire families camp out in cemeteries and sometimes spend a night or two near the relatives' tombs.

Whoa, that's scary. I don't know if I could do that.

Why? We should fear the living, not the dead.

Alright, we're back. So why don't we look at three main phrases on fluency builder now?

Fluency Builder.

Well, the first phrase should be obvious by now because it is the name of the holiday we're talking about, and the name is The Day of the Dead.

The Day of the Dead.

So this is their day.

It is, and uh it's The Day of the Dead because it's the day in which people around the world celebrate the departed. It's it's when they talk about and remember people that they've loved who've died.

Mhm.

Mhm. Exactly. And you're not actually going to hear this very often in reference to American culture because it's not something Americans do and English people don't do either.

But people when they're talking about their own families and traditions, uh we want to talk about this because in the Philippines or in Latin America, you have a very strong uh culture like a very strong tradition of celebrating this.

Mhm.

So.

Alright, and as we mentioned, this day is a is a day to honor or to remember your loved ones, and that's our second phrase, your loved ones.

The phrase loved ones might not be obvious to many people because you can love many people and many things.

But loved ones is a phrase that generally means the people that you care about the most, your friends and your family.

So, you can say, I want to have a party, but I only want my loved ones to be there.

Um or, he was in the hospital and all of his loved ones visited him.

So it's all those people, not necessarily only family, friends and family that you love.

Exactly, and so those are the people in the world that are the very closest to you.

Okay.

And our last phrase and probably one of the the most interesting traditions that that we were able to see in this dialogue is that people in the Philippines camp out in uh cemeteries on their family or loved ones' uh tomb.

That's right, so the phrase to camp out means to stay overnight, to bring food and a tent or blankets.

And uh it essentially means to make a camp so you can stay there.

And this is very unusual to me because I can't imagine sleeping in a graveyard. I think I get the goosebumps.

Right. So, uh camp out or you can just say camp, right? You don't necessarily have to say both of them.

Right, you can camp or you can camp out and camp out uh generally means that you're staying in a place that is temporary.

Okay.

Very good. So, um interesting phrases as well on fluency builder today. Let's listen to the dialogue for the last time and we'll be right back.

The Day of the Dead has arrived.

All Souls Day and All Saints Day.

Your neighbor is crazy. Why is he screaming that?

Because today is the first of November, the Day of the Dead.

Oh, that's right.

This is a very special day among many cultures around the world, especially in Latin America.

Seriously?

I thought it was just like any other day, except for the fact that people visit the cemetery and remember their loved ones.

Well, that's just part of it. People across the world celebrate in different ways.

In Mexico, for example, it's common to see people building private altars, honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, preparing the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

In the Philippines, the tombs are cleaned or repainted. Candles are lit and flowers are offered.

Entire families camp out in cemeteries and sometimes spend a night or two near the relatives' tombs.

Whoa, that's scary. I don't know if I could do that.

Why? We should fear the living, not the dead.

Alright, we're back. So, uh, Catherine, you mentioned that in Anglo-Saxon culture, England or in the United States,

you don't have this type of tradition of honoring the dead or or something like that, but you do visit the tomb of your loved ones or the cemetery as well, right?

People do, definitely.

But you just don't have a national day where you do this.

Well, Veterans Day is a day when we celebrate people who were killed in wars or people who participated in wars. So in America, we have a day called Memorial Day in which we remember the people who have died serving the country in the military.

And so Memorial Day is a day in which many people like to go to the graveyards and to lay flowers or to remember the dead.

Um, but it really depends on your family. I mean, some people like to go the day a person died and on the anniversary or on a special day for them, so it's very private and personal and individual.

It's not something that we all do on one particular day.

Right, right, right. And uh I think what may strike many people as as a different is um that you visit the cemetery and if you ever have the chance to be in Mexico or in a Hispanic country,

uh you will see that it's full of people and it's actually a there's a lot of food and people are there eating on the tomb and just and they've actually prepared the food that was uh the deceased's favorite.

Exactly, and it's a way of actually sharing a meal with that person even though that person is isn't with you anymore in this world.

So, um, yeah, it's actually very interesting. It goes back again to a little bit of uh of the culture and the folk lore and everything from different countries.

But we want to know what you guys do or how you remember your deceased because each country has its own particular little very interesting way of doing it.

That's right. So, please share with us on our website englishpod.com your own traditions and the culture that you have in your home country or town.

Alright, so we'll see you guys there.

The English audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

November 2 observed in some Christian churches as the Day of the Dead.

All Souls Day.

Among.

Among.

Confer honor on.

Honor.

The people who have passed away.

The departed.

Let's try that faster.

Among.

Among.

November 2 observed in some Christian churches as the Day of the Dead.

All Souls Day.

The people who have passed away.

The departed.

Confer honor on.

Honor.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

All Souls Day.

We surrender our souls to his holy presence.

All Souls Day.

All Souls Day.

Among.

I believe that the spirit of my grandfather walks among us.

Among.

There is a traitor among our lines.

Among.

Honor.

It is respectful to honor those who died for a better life for us.

Honor.

Honor.

She couldn't have been honoring her name by doing such things.

The departed.

The day to honor the departed is about to come.

The departed.

The departed.

We should remember and respect the departed.