Halloween today is largely a commercial festival, and a bit of fun for children, but it has dark origins in the Celtic festival of Samhain. At that time, people believed, the barrier between the living and the spirit world was thinnest. Maybe that’s why we choose as fun decorations at this time of year things that would terrify us at any other time.
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Is there such a thing as an ordinary object? And is ordinary the same for everyone? One thing that travel teaches is that one person’s ordinary can look extraordinary to another. The things we take for granted in our lives, the little things that make life easier, may not be the same in other parts of the world, or may not exist at all, at least for the average family.
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The 2024 Olympic Games finished some weeks ago, but the torch is burning bright again in the Jardins des Tuileries, now for the Paralympic Games.
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Wherever you go in Mexico you will see skulls. Why? Because the skull in Mexican culture represents death and rebirth, the cycle of life. People here believe that the afterlife is as important if not more important than your life on earth. The skull symbolises both sides, life and the afterlife.
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Observing or meeting children when we travel I realise that, even more than adults, they have far more in common with each other regardless of where they live than they do any differences. They enjoy play, they seek friendship, they need acceptance and respect. And of course they all need the basics of food, drink, shelter, education.
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While I hope I can say of many of my photos that it ‘tells a story’, I have chosen to call this particular gallery 'Every picture tells a story' for a reason. As a song (and album) title, it fits perfectly with my theme, mixing images with music.
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In 1531 a peasant, Juan Diego, reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the hill of Tepeyac, today swallowed up in the metropolis of Mexico City. The Virgin, he said, spoke to him in in Nahuatl, his first language, asking that a church be built on the site in her honour.
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In the remote mountainous lands of Chihuahua state in northern Mexico the Rarámuri people of the Copper Canyon still enjoy a largely traditional lifestyle, despite the incursions of the modern world. We were privileged to be able to meet a Rarámuri family, one that has chosen to blend a traditional way of life with the benefits that tourism can offer.
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The Piedra de la Fertilidad (Stone of Fertility) is a rock shaped like a penis which unsurprisingly is something of a fertility symbol for the Raramuri people of the Copper Canyon region. They believe that a man who touches it will become more virile while a woman doing the same will become pregnant.
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The tomb known as Tomb Seven is the most famous of many discovered at Monte Albán, as it contained the largest number of Mesoamerican objects found to date, both from the Zapotec culture and later Mixtecs.
