
How the Dead Danced with the Living in Medieval Society - LarryManchoney
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-dead-danced-with-the-living-in-medieval-society/
======
cat199
this article is written from an extremely anglo-centric, post-enlightenment
reformation perspective.

plenty of people who are not 'antiquated' actively practice the same sorts of
beliefs being presented here as 'historical', both in a christian context and
otherwise (e.g. shinto, etc)

~~~
dragontamer
> this article is written from an extremely anglo-centric, post-enlightenment
> reformation perspective.

I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing?

Some people may not necessarily know about the history in post-enlightenment
reformation era, or how it relates to current culture.

I for the most part have heard of this story (as presented in the article).
Its part of growing up as a Catholic: where Halloween is the "Holy Eve" of All
Saint's Day (Nov 1st), an important Holy Day of Obligation in the modern
Catholic Church. Followed up by "All Souls Day" which touches upon the ancient
"Purgatory" debate that is discussed in this article. And these religious
debates have continued for hundreds of years (and likely will never be
resolved)

The article is a historical look at these traditions, which isn't a bad thing.
Its informative and secular, so that non-religious and religious can reflect
upon the Halloween tradition.

Tonight, thousands of children will dress up as the dead (although more
commonly they're going to dress up as comic book characters. Traditionally its
ghosts / ghouls / skeletons however) and then roam the streets as they ask for
candy from strangers.

Sometimes its nice to take a step back and remember how this all began. Some
of it is religious tradition, some of it isn't ("Dance Macabre" isn't
necessarily a religious concept). But the historical perspective always helps.

~~~
olivermarks
Trying to write a piece about Egyptian concepts of 'death' and weighing the
soul through to the present day would be a huge book, not a short article
about 'anglo-centric, post-enlightenment reformation perspectives'.

It's also interesting to read as today is Samhein/Halloween/Allsaints/Days of
the Dead, and there are definite celtic origins to anglo religions...and
eradications...

The original article has images and is easier to read

[https://theconversation.com/how-the-dead-danced-with-the-
liv...](https://theconversation.com/how-the-dead-danced-with-the-living-in-
medieval-society-85881)

~~~
dragontamer
Well, I guess its too ambitious to really start "where it all began". But for
most people, where it was 500-years ago (1500s or so) is a good approximation.
Even if this approximation is English / Protestant -centric

The article is concise enough to cover a few topics here and there as a
reminder of history. I can't say that I necessarily "learned" anything new of
the article, but it touches upon some concepts that I haven't heard for
decades... since my grade-school education.

~~~
cat199
that's it.. its _not history_ except when taking a limited philosophical bias
as your perspective.. hence critique.

wouldn't have taken much to actually be accurate and still cover the same
information and still maintain a us/anglo/post-reformation/enlightenment
focus..

