Clinic Closure from Monday October 30th to Friday November 3rd
Dr. Ferreira will be visiting her late mother’s Gravesite
In recognition of the Day of the Dead, Dr. Ferreira will be making her annual trip to visit the gravesite of her mother Evangelina Rodriguez Ferreira. She will be traveling to a remote part of Michoacán, Mexico, where her family resides. For that reason Empowered Healing Center will be closed Monday October 30th through Friday November 3rd.
**Dr. Ferreira will not be in the country or reachable. However if you need to reach the clinic during the week of October 30th through November 3rd, we will be attending calls to schedule/cancel appointments.**
Please make sure to have everything you need before the week of her absence.
**If you need a refill for a prescription** please make sure to reach out to your pharmacy as soon as possible so they may send us the refill request electronically and/or via fax. Upon the receipt of the request it allows us to allocate it to your chart and put it in for Dr. Ferreira to review before her departure.
November 1st & 2nd
Día De Muertos – Day Of The Dead
Fun facts about Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) is a two day holiday that reunites the living and dead. Families create ofrendas (Offerings) to honor their departed family members that have passed. These altars are decorated with bright yellow marigold flowers, photos of the departed, and the favorite foods and drinks of the one being honored. The offerings are believed to encourage visits from the land of the dead as the departed souls hear their prayers, smell their foods and join in the celebrations!
Day of the Dead is a rare holiday for celebrating death and life. It is unlike any holiday where mourning is exchanged for celebration.
Day of the dead is not Halloween
Day of the Dead is not the “Mexican Halloween” like it is sometimes mistaken to be because of the timing of the year. The two holidays originated with similar afterlife beliefs but are very different in modern day. Halloween began as a Celtic Festival where people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts but has recently turned into a tradition of costume wearing and trick-or-treating. Decorating your house with spiders and bats and wearing scary costumes is not done in most parts of Mexico.
It’s not somber but celebratory
Many of us see death as a sad event but those who celebrate Day of the Dead view death as a welcomed part of life. That is why you will see brightly colored skeletons and skulls everywhere during the holiday. They often are seen smiling, as a friendly nod to death, even mocking death. This view of death began way back during the one month Aztec festival where they celebrated the dead and paid homage to the lady of death, Mictlancíhuatl, who protected their departed loved ones and helped them in the afterlife.
Traditions are different by Country
Believe it or not, Mexicans are not the only ones to celebrate Day of the Dead. It is a widely celebrated holiday all over the world. In fact, many religious communities celebrate All Souls Day (also known as All Saints Day) during the same time as Day of the Dead. The act of honoring the dead is widely celebrated around the world but Day of the Dead is unique in its traditions: the ofrenda, the meaning of life and death, the use of calaveras, the style influenced by La Catrina, and more recently, the festivals in the streets.
Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them