faith and religion

Every November 2, cemeteries are decorated with flowers, freshly painted crosses, pictures and cards to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Quito.

Early in the morning, thousands of Ecuadorians remember their family members and friends who’ve passed away with prayers, vigils and songs. This popular holiday merges hundreds of years of traditions in a fusion of Catholic and indigenous rites, where faith and religion come to life in an act of profound significance.

The oldest towns in Ecuador have been celebrating the dead since before the arrival of the Spaniards, but with Christianity, the tradition was adapted to the Catholic calendar. Today, the streets near the cemeteries fill with locals selling flowers and prayer cards and food trucks providing typical cuisine such as colada morada and guaguas de pan, which represent the religious syncretism and culinary fusion of the holiday. At the Calderon Cemetery, about 30 minutes from Quito, indigenous communities visit the graves of their loved ones and share the favorite food of the person who passed away as a way to honor them and communicate with them, with the belief that the deceased live a similar life than the one they lived while alive.

colada morada blackberries-and-sweet-bread-guagua-de-pan

The preparation of these dishes also serve as a reason for the entire family to get together. Colada morada, one of the typical beverages for the Day of the Dead, is a drink of indigenous origin and one of the most traditional delicacies of Quito’s cuisine. Prepared with a base of black corn, blueberries, blackberries, pineapple, orange and other fruits and herbs, colada morada is accompanied by the traditional guagua de pan, sweet breads shaped into baby-like figures made with wheat flour and, in some places, with cornmeal from grains from the Ecuadorian Andes.

The guaguas de pan are reminiscent of the dead, especially children (hence the name guagua, which means child in Quechua). Its origin dates back to the nineteenth century and today are normally filled with guava, figs, chocolate, raisins and custard or tree tomato. For the Silo, Luciana Soula.

Plato’s The Republic challenged the way humankind thought. Now, a immigrant from then-Communist Hungary is posing a similar challenge: Is perception reality, why can one individual’s experience of reality differ so radically from another’s, and how can humankind’s search for a deity be what ultimately separates us from each other and from Nature?

Heady stuff, and Istvan Deak’s book, Frail Absolute, is not for the faint-hearted.

Neither is the author, who fled Hungary illegally with his wife and lived in an Italian refugee camp for six months before being allowed into Montreal, Canada. There, Deak secured a job using brooms and mops in an expert way cleaning hospital corridors, and eventually writing commercial business software programs. A short time later, he moved to Toronto, where he and his wife live now.

3rd Century AD scroll fragment of Plato's Republic — 3rd Century AD scroll fragment of Plato’s Republic

A philosophy is born. As this self-described analytical introvert began revisiting the philosophers he had read as a teenager, long-quiet questions began to surface about religion, about matter and energy, about how humans interact with one another. And he began writing Frail Absolute.

“I understood that the Force of Reality blew up in the Big Bang and created our universe,” Deak says.

“That Force, that Absolute, has been and must be present in everything in a most profound manner. Otherwise, everything would cease to exist.”

As he wrote and thought and questioned, his epiphany came.

“I asked this Force of Reality, ‘Where can I find you?’ And the reply came back, ‘Who is it who stirs your mind so that you want to know this?'” the author says.

As in The Republic, where Socrates and others discuss the meaning of justice, happiness, soul and the roles of the philosopher in society, characters in Frail Absolute discuss the meaning of reality, perception and harmony. Where Socrates vision culminates in a city ruled by philosopher-kings, Frail Absolute ultimately creates a way to exist in what Deak dubs “the Continuum (All That Is).”

“I have always sought a way to transcend what separates us from one another and from the force that exists everywhere. No matter what one believes in “science, a strict or a benevolent deity, even a non-existent god such as atheists do“ searching for this concept keeps humans apart. All reality is relative to the individual experiencing it,” he says. “Since there can be no single, absolute truth, I imagine how we can instead pursue the shareable values of love, compassion and harmonious collaboration in our daily existence.”

Mr. Deak — Recent photograph of Istvan Deak

Istvan Deak grew up in Hungary, reading the works of ancient and modern philosophers. As a young adult, he taught math and physics before fleeing Communist Hungary for a refugee camp in Italy with his wife. They emigrated to Canada, where he eventually joined a railway company and then began writing software applications as a freelancer. He plans for Frail Absolute to be just the first of many philosophical books.

Istvan Deak’s Wikipedia Page

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Tag Archives: faith and religion

Day Of The Dead Is Unique Ecuador Halloween

Thinking about celebrating Day of the Dead in a unique way? How about Quito, Ecuador.

Every November 2, cemeteries are decorated with flowers, freshly painted crosses, pictures and cards to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Quito.

‘Frail Absolute’ Book Not For Faint Hearted

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