Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:01:26In Mexico death has a very
00:01:30I think it's always important to think about particular quality, it can dress up for
00:01:34Mexico, I don't know if you know that a party, it can wear a huge hat,
00:01:37become a mocking verse or appear in
00:01:40a small sugar skull, here we
00:01:43dare to joke with death, to represent it in
00:01:47art and even welcome it with
00:01:50music, flowers and our best
00:01:53dishes, but where does this singular
00:01:56way of relating to
00:02:00death come from, who
00:02:03story about a parade of turned the Katrina into a national symbol, why do we write
00:02:07memory, before going literary skulls and how a deeply
00:02:11familiar celebration ended up conquering
00:02:15international stages. Today
00:02:18we will discover that, although death is
00:02:21universal, each town has a different way of
00:02:24remembering it. We will travel through
00:02:27Mexico, through the United States, El Salvador
00:02:30also through Bolivia, we will get to know a
00:02:34perspective from Caracas,
00:02:37welcome to Telesur to our third special
00:02:40program dedicated to the Day of the
00:02:43Dead, today death is dressed
00:02:47in celebration and you will see why we are going
00:02:50at this time to connect with my
00:02:54colleague eh Daniel Rosas, this is the
00:02:58beginning of our journey in
00:03:00Mexico, in one of the places where this celebration
00:03:04acquires a particularly profound
00:03:06meaning, these are the cemeteries, on these
00:03:10dates families arrive with flowers, candles,
00:03:13offerings, also to remember their
00:03:16to talk to us about everything loved ones. The cemeteries become spaces of
00:03:20encounter where memory, traditions and affections
00:03:24remain alive. We go live,
00:03:27as I was telling you, with my colleague
00:03:33country here, but it is also nice to incorporate what Daniel, who is in a cemetery, he will tell us
00:03:36which one, to show us how this
00:03:39in times where the commercialization celebration was experienced today,
00:03:42Daniel, good evening, what an atmosphere was experienced rather
00:03:46during the day eh by the
00:03:49family remembering their loved ones, go ahead
00:03:53Daniel,
00:03:56thank you and good evening to all, indeed this is the
00:03:59San Isidro cemetery in the northern part of Mexico City and it is
00:04:03particularly striking because it is
00:04:05important thing about this known as the children's cemetery, precisely priority is given to the
00:04:08graves of the little ones who have passed away and precisely today,
00:04:12here in Mexico and in many parts of the world, the day of the deceased
00:04:15children is commemorated, it is particularly striking and full of
00:04:18color because today, particularly today, the
00:04:22graves of the boys and girls who passed away are filled with pinwheels,
00:04:25toys, balloons, a lot of
00:04:29color and... a lot of celebration and precisely to be able to know a little
00:04:33about this atmosphere of wind turbines, pinwheels
00:04:36or as we call them here in Mexico,
00:04:40in costumes, also in reguiletes, I allowed myself to art, in fashion, talk to Don Carlos Vicente, Carlos Vicente is an artisan precisely
00:04:43of the Reguilete and windmills, Carlos, well, we are transmitting
00:04:47for an international television station, they see us in many parts of the world
00:04:50and we want to ask him
00:04:54as part of the natural cycle of about these toys and particularly today that people
00:04:56buy them, how has it been for them, well, right now, thank God,
00:05:02And the second, from the patrimonialization we thank God that he allows us to be here again this year to bring you
00:05:05this, more than anything, the traditional ornament that is our pinwheel that we make
00:05:09here for the graves and well, yes, sales are a bit
00:05:13low, but God willing, tomorrow, which is the good day, we hope
00:05:17to finish everything, well, we were watching, I tell you, here is his family and
00:05:20everyone at this moment making these pinwheels, yes, here, more than anything,
00:05:24we arrive a day before so that this, well, since it is a lot of material
00:05:28that we make and it is a lot of bulk, we come to prepare ourselves, more than
00:05:31anything, here we make it from scratch from this, well,
00:05:35cutting, assembling, gluing, it is a job, but we do it from the
00:05:39heart and because we have brought this tradition for a long
00:05:43time and it gives us a livelihood for this
00:05:47date, more than anything, that's what I was going to ask, it's a tradition that is passed down among families,
00:05:51yes, more than anything, for a long time now, family members, 30, 30
00:05:54years more or less, already the antiquity well, from generation to
00:05:58generation, we pass it down mutually, now, families,
00:06:02nephews, uncles, children, well, here we are, I thank you very much, Don
00:06:05Carlos, okay, thank you very much to everyone, greetings, Carlos
00:06:09Vicente, precisely an artisan of the pinwheel, reguilete as we know it
00:06:13in Mexico, Isa, and well, we are surely observing the images
00:06:17of this morning of how all the graves here in the children's cemetery
00:06:20were filled with these toys, balloons, but it must be said also
00:06:24of many families who come and play music, although
00:06:27with tears, Isa, you already said it, here in Mexico we celebrate and even
00:06:31joke with death, although with tears, here the people who are still at
00:06:35this time of night, well, we can find them still
00:06:38singing, enjoying and commemorating their loved ones
00:06:42who have passed away, so for now, that's what's happening here in one of the traditional
00:06:46cemeteries in Mexico City and well, I have no choice but to invite you,
00:06:50of course, to continue with us in this, which is just the beginning of this special
00:06:53program, Aisa,
00:06:56hey Daniel, how moving this way of keeping
00:07:00those who are no longer here present, these pinwheels
00:07:04are very particular and are seen a lot and
00:07:07precisely behind these
00:07:10celebrations, Daniel, there are symbols that help
00:07:14us understand the relationship between life,
00:07:17death and
00:07:20to what's next, I want to ask you Daniel, where
00:07:23will you be tomorrow?
00:07:24Well,
00:07:27tomorrow we will have details of two
00:07:30possible points, but both have to do, of course, with this tradition, either
00:07:34we will visit the traditional Pantheon of Dolores in Mexico
00:07:37City, the importance of this cemetery is that there is the rotunda of
00:07:41illustrious people. That is, great men and women who have
00:07:45given life to Mexican history are there their remains and there
00:07:49are truly artisan graves, a true
00:07:52colossal craftsmanship, well, a wonderful thing, or
00:07:56there are also some monumental offerings,
00:07:58particularly in what is considered the largest public
00:08:01university in Mexico, the Onam, a monumental offering has been placed
00:08:05there, so we will be at one of these two points and of course with
00:08:09many details and more stories to tell the people who accompany us from...
00:08:12parts of the world,
00:08:15hey, thank you very much Daniel, now we are going to go Daniel with
00:08:19our colleague in Caracas with Marina
00:08:22Aguirre, because she precisely
00:08:25wants to talk to us, she is going
00:08:28that is used in an offering,
00:08:32go ahead Marina, good evening to
00:08:35you.
00:08:46Hello Isa, how are you, I greet you from Caracas, the Venezuelan
00:08:50capital, where I also tell you that this tradition
00:08:53is celebrated, which has among its main figures the
00:08:57Catrina, an elegant skull, born as
00:09:00a social critique that has become the most beloved
00:09:03face of the Day of the Dead, I tell you how its history began, it was at
00:09:07the beginning of the 20th century, the caricaturist José Guadalupe
00:09:11Posada gave life to the Calavera Garbancera, he created it as
00:09:15a critique of the Mexican upper class that imitated European
00:09:18customs and despised its own roots, that
00:09:22sophisticated skull adorned with a haute
00:09:26couture hat has become a symbol of social
00:09:29hypocrisy, also a reminder that death
00:09:33comes for everyone without distinction of economic
00:09:36or social status. Over time, the Catrina
00:09:40ceased to be just a critique to become the emblem of Mexican
00:09:43culture, its figure lives in popular
00:09:48in sugar skulls,
00:09:52offerings. The Catrina embodies the duality of life
00:09:56and death, a central concept of the Mexican
00:09:59worldview. Here, death is not
00:10:02feared, it is celebrated
00:10:06existence, that is why it is represented with
00:10:09elegance and grace, challenging the idea that death
00:10:13is somber or terrifying and transforming grief into a
00:10:17celebration, uniting communities in an act of
00:10:20love and respect, for those who say goodbye to a loved
00:10:23one,
00:10:26Catrina represents embracing the image of the face of the person we love before
00:10:30it fades away,
00:10:33interesting story, isn't it Aisa, now we go with
00:10:37you,
00:10:41you know, I have loved this story, Marina, just
00:10:45as you have narrated it and from Caracas, because the
00:10:49Catrinas for Mexicans are
00:10:51significant and well, I find them
00:10:55beautiful, in fact, I tell you, I have one this big in my
00:10:59house, because I love my daughter too, well
00:11:03Marina, thank you, now we are going to discover what is behind
00:11:07these representations and for this, today we are joined
00:11:11by a writer who has dedicated
00:11:14a good part of her work to
00:11:17investigating the relationship that exists between
00:11:20food, memory and identity,
00:11:24I present to you: Mariana Castillo Hernández, she
00:11:27is co-author of a book entitled Day of the
00:11:31Dead, Recipes and Traditions, which was
00:11:34published by La Rose and recognized in the
00:11:37Gourmand World Cookbook Awards of
00:11:412023, she is also editor of Milpa
00:11:45Gráfica, a work dedicated, look
00:11:48at her, to corn, to native
00:11:51corn, very important and also to the
00:11:54agricultural knowledge of Mexico, Mariana,
00:11:58welcome to Telesur, I am very happy that
00:12:01you can come on a day like today, which is Sunday, here to
00:12:05share with the wonderful audience of Telesur, to
00:12:09talk about the tradition, and this
00:12:11particular one that I love, it is one of my favorite
00:12:15celebrations in Mexico, and well, the first
00:12:19question has to do with the fact that Mexicans
00:12:22have turned death into an
00:12:26expression, an expression so
00:12:29eh, let's say full of color, humor and creativity that
00:12:33is fabulous, in your investigations with Mexican
00:12:36families, what have you discovered about
00:12:39the difference between the celebration we see in the
00:12:42streets and the celebration inside homes, do
00:12:46you put up an altar, yes, exactly, in
00:12:49fact, also one of my favorite holidays, it's a pleasure to be here with
00:12:52you chatting, I really look forward to it, like my Christmas,
00:12:56in fact, I prefer these days to Christmas and well, to begin with,
00:12:59the question you ask me is very important because
00:13:03the representation of death is present in our culture
00:13:07since Mesoamerican times, right, and we see the changes and that's
00:13:10why it's so ingrained because it's not something foreign
00:13:14and in the streets, well, right now we also see various
00:13:17representations of parades that are more contemporary now, but the
00:13:21important thing about this date, we must remember, happens in the
00:13:25intimate altars and offerings, it doesn't matter if it's a small
00:13:28altar that only has a candle, a few flowers, because it's also
00:13:32expensive to put up an altar, it also
00:13:34moves the economy, it's very important, right now just yesterday I was going to the
00:13:38market with my husband, we went to a new market that we didn't know in Tlalnepantla
00:13:42and well, you see all the commerce associated with this, both contemporary
00:13:46things, we see a lot of plastic and so on, but also all the
00:13:49crafts, the copal burners, the different types of flowers,
00:13:52pumpkins, let's go, natural cempasúchil
00:13:55and not natural plastic ones of all kinds,
00:13:59everything, everything, but the important thing here and we must remember it because
00:14:04of the celebration has also changed and we will surely talk about that,
00:14:08is that the important thing is that an offering is dedicated to someone, it is dedicated
00:14:12to a person who is no longer
00:14:14here, that is essential, it is not
00:14:18exactly very important for families and also in the spaces,
00:14:21well, they are a part that also eh is taken up
00:14:25to make us remember the value of memory, right, that is the most
00:14:30celebration, it is very important what Mariana
00:14:33says, because it is not the same to make an offering with the things that the
00:14:37offering has than to dedicate it to certain people who have
00:14:40touched our heart, well,
00:14:43look, and if there is an expression that demonstrates our
00:14:46ability to laugh at death, it is precisely
00:14:50the calaveritas that you mentioned, some are
00:14:53written in verse, with humor and irony and
00:14:56others are made with sugar,
00:15:00chocolate and amaranth, I love the amaranth ones, you
00:15:04too, I love them, they are my favorites, look, look,
00:15:07look, look, we are getting to know each other thanks to this
00:15:10program, some calaveritas, calaveritas
00:15:13are used to make social criticism, those that are written
00:15:16and others are part of the offerings and family
00:15:19memories, let's see how these small
00:15:23representations have become an
00:15:26expression of popular Mexican creativity,
00:15:29this is the story of my
00:15:32colleague Antonio Aranda,
00:15:35go ahead Studio.
00:15:40They are more than a simple ornament, the sugar skulls represent
00:15:43the loved ones who have already departed, but in recent
00:15:46years the tradition has transformed without losing its
00:15:50pre-Hispanic and colonial
00:15:51essence.
00:15:58Currently, the use of amaranth, an ancestral
00:16:01and highly nutritious seed, is consolidated as
00:16:05the main ingredient. in combination with Lucero chocolate,
00:16:09artisanal manufacturer of skulls, people look for this type of, in this
00:16:13case, food, right now because of health and all that, the sugar
00:16:17one is traditional and only here it is used as decoration,
00:16:21in fact, it is used, it is saved and it is taken out again next year,
00:16:24and these are not, these are good for our offering and later
00:16:28to eat them because they are made with amaranth,
00:16:31so that's like the plus, right, of the
00:16:35de miski, which is the traditional one for Day of the Dead, eh near here
00:16:39my uncles would make the skulls, the children would decorate
00:16:42them and we would sell them to people, right, so that maybe they would
00:16:46eat them at that moment, maybe they would take them to a loved one, maybe for their
00:16:49offering and well, currently yes, we do have demand
00:16:53for skulls, in this small family workshop, Lucero's
00:16:56daughters learn how to preserve their cultural identity and the
00:17:00tradition of the skulls, it is a way of remembering
00:17:03them, of telling them that we have not forgotten them and that...
00:17:07well, we wait for them here every year and by tradition
00:17:11we know that they come to visit us from
00:17:14the 31st, from the 31st, the first and the 2nd
00:17:18of November they come to visit our houses, so what they take with
00:17:22them is the aroma of, for example, all
00:17:25these products that are like the chocolate skulls, maybe also the pumpkin with
00:17:29milk and everything else that is put on the offering, although the offerings
00:17:33are to welcome the souls of the deceased, these also cause
00:17:36delight in the living, in our culture it is
00:17:40a moment to bring back those memories with our loved
00:17:43ones through also
00:17:47eh trying to obtain those memories
00:17:50based on the offering with its foods, the
00:17:54drinks they preferred, for me it means the
00:17:57love we had for our loved ones, when they
00:18:01left us, it is to remember them, to put their
00:18:04offering, something they liked
00:18:08shredded paper, Cempasúchil flower, pan de muerto, sugar
00:18:12skulls, all so that loved ones who have
00:18:15already passed away know that their memory is still
00:18:19alive. Antonio Aranda Telesur, Mexico
00:18:22City.
00:18:25Hey, Mariana, and behind that humor, especially in the written
00:18:28calaveritas, there is a very interesting relationship
00:18:32with death. My question is, why
00:18:36here in Mexico? Well, I can also
00:18:40make fun of death and even write
00:18:43verses imagining my own death,
00:18:46of course, I would say that precisely from the very creation,
00:18:50for example, of the Catrina and the calaveritas, well, José Guadalupe
00:18:53Posada knew that despite the fact that we laugh, it is also a
00:18:57way of sustaining the reality, so unequal, so
00:19:01complex, right, so I think that remains true today and, for
00:19:05example, I saw all the stations across the
00:19:08country today and there is a non-conformist Catrina, right, that they put right in the
00:19:12Zócalo of Puebla, the searching mothers, there is also the
00:19:16Catrina, that is Mexico, Mexico has this contrast where,
00:19:20well, we laugh, but also all the time this grief also speaks of
00:19:23injustice, so that has been present forever
00:19:27in this character and well, there is also the one that the
00:19:30Yeca organization put up, which is a trans Catrina because it is also talking
00:19:34about all the social changes, right, so I
00:19:38love to see what happens every year, to document how the
00:19:41writings are changing, how the new manifestations are changing around,
00:19:44as if they are adapting, they always, always adapt,
00:19:48in fact, well, we also have the presence, well, Juan Rulfo as a
00:19:51very important writer, well, he also has this presence where, well, there are
00:19:55some very harsh passages, but you also have this play all the time with
00:19:59language where, well, death is always present there, hey
00:20:03Mariana, another question about the same thing, about the same topic,
00:20:06sorry, what is the difference between a tradition
00:20:10like this that preserves its community
00:20:13sense because of what you are saying and one that ends up being converted
00:20:17only into a commercial object, that
00:20:20is a topic that interests me a lot and precisely the book Day of the Dead,
00:20:24Recipes and Traditions eh seeks that the celebration
00:20:28should not be seen as, on the one hand, that the celebration be stripped
00:20:31of its original meaning, which is memory and transcendence
00:20:35in community, that is the first thing.
00:20:39of the celebration, we saw how this era had the
00:20:43spotlights on it, right, these new parades that
00:20:46exist today, well, there they are, but in reality
00:20:50eh the celebration has a very important community sense,
00:20:53a while ago I was talking to you about commerce, right, in the
00:20:58the celebration, because the original sense of the offerings has
00:21:01to do with the crops, a while ago you mentioned precisely the importance of native
00:21:05corn, in most
00:21:09different areas of indigenous peoples and rural towns, agricultural
00:21:12towns and cities, the seasonal
00:21:15crops are present, there is no offering that does
00:21:19not have it present.
00:21:27cacao even in the Tabasco southeast area, so
00:21:31it is very important to see it from there, hey
00:21:34Mariana, where can we buy your book, the book can
00:21:37be bought in most of the bookstores eh in Mexico,
00:21:41there also, well, you can go to the bookseller's page
00:21:45and to Larus' social networks and well, I think it is also present on Amazon,
00:21:48as far as I know. because the book came out some years ago, but
00:21:52there are still some copies there and it is important, well, above
00:21:56all, it focuses on the food culture
00:21:59eh of the festivals in different places because it is very
00:22:02difficult eh to represent all the states, the truth
00:22:06is that it is a very broad festival in many senses,
00:22:10so we only eh portray there eh the
00:22:13families who received us very generously, very
00:22:17kindly to precisely document those dishes that are important for
00:22:20them. I ask because here in
00:22:24in schools offerings are also made and children are taught
00:22:28from a very young age to prepare the
00:22:30offerings, to use shredded paper
00:22:34and well, the Catrinas are then the greatest expression, what
00:22:38we love to see parading through the streets, from there I tell you that we must
00:22:42go to Washington because my colleague José
00:22:45Leveña also a Telesur
00:22:48correspondent in the United States. He prepared a very nice
00:22:53Catrinas in the US capital,
00:22:57so let's see.
00:23:07The Washington Catrina Parade reached its 2026 edition with skull
00:23:11contests, folkloric ballet performances, choirs and musical
00:23:15groups, a celebration that brings the community together around a Mexican
00:23:18tradition that has crossed borders. In the United States live close to 40 million people
00:23:22of Mexican origin, for many of them, the Day of the Dead is a way to maintain the
00:23:26bond with their culture, honor their loved ones and share their customs
00:23:30in the country where they live today, it is an honor
00:23:34to be here and participate and
00:23:37share Mexican traditions with the Mexican
00:23:40community here in Washington. Traditions are also a meeting
00:23:43point. Through music, dresses and celebrations, the
00:23:47Latino community preserves its identity and maintains
00:23:50ties with their countries of origin, we are Latinos living in the United
00:23:53States, Mexican culture is absolutely
00:23:57beautiful, the parade was free and open to the public,
00:24:00artists and participants joined a day that not only celebrates Mexican
00:24:04roots, but also seeks to transmit these customs to
00:24:08new generations, it is very important as immigrants here in the United
00:24:12States to have these traditions that we have in our countries and
00:24:15pass them on to the next generation so that they stay alive here in the United States,
00:24:19we are part of the... the
00:24:23we have in our countries. The commemoration also reached the Mexican
00:24:26Cultural Institute, where a monumental altar with flowers,
00:24:30candles, photographs and offerings was inaugurated. This
00:24:33time the tribute was dedicated to Mexican artists who left
00:24:36their mark on culture, although they did not always receive
00:24:40The idea arose from paying tribute to eight magnificent
00:24:43Mexican artists, all of whom have
00:24:47not had the recognition that others have had, but who... who have left a
00:24:51wonderful legacy in Mexican culture and who
00:24:54are also my dead, they are people I grew up with, people who were
00:24:58always at home with my parents, also artists. The way
00:25:02Mexicans receive the souls
00:25:05of those beloved ones who have passed
00:25:08before us, makes me feel super proud to be Mexican that these kinds
00:25:12of traditions can be exported and that other
00:25:16countries, other cultures can also learn a little from ours. The Day of the
00:25:20Dead is much more than a celebration, it is memory, identity and a way
00:25:23to keep present those who were part of our lives. Among cempasúchil flowers,
00:25:27candles, photographs and offerings, this celebration reminds us that memory
00:25:31is also a form of cultural resistance, because traditions do not
00:25:34understand borders, they travel with people, they are transmitted from generation to
00:25:37generation and conquer new spaces. From Washington, José
00:25:41Leveña, Telesur. I
00:25:44agree, I agree with José Leveña that
00:25:47traditions cross borders. The celebration of the Day
00:25:50of the Dead also speaks to us of migration, of
00:25:53belonging and identity, and this story
00:25:56reflects it very well. Now Mariana, what does it mean for
00:26:00a migrant community like this one that we have.
00:26:02Oleveña, to preserve their traditions and
00:26:05share them with people from other cultures. All of Washington
00:26:09was watching the Mexican Catrinas
00:26:12parade, it is very important, we also have to remember
00:26:16that cultural matters are maintained thanks to rituals, so
00:26:19imagine being away from home and looking for your community
00:26:23to continue celebrating what connects you to your origins,
00:26:27right? In the book, we have a very beautiful story of the
00:26:30family. on the Day of the Dead,
00:26:33yes, they make for this season
00:26:36only, a lot of pan de muerto, the yolk one, in
00:26:40Miaguatlán de Porfirio Díaz, and really most of that
00:26:43bread goes to the United States, because also many migrant
00:26:47communities from different states, Guerrero, Puebla, Oaxaca,
00:26:51Tabasco, well, they have relatives who work on the other side, so
00:26:54imagine how important it is for those families to have a bread that
00:26:58comes from the place where they were born, but also their grandparents and...
00:27:02they have their origin, so it's something very important, why is the
00:27:06bread of the dead in the offerings in all the
00:27:09altars, in the cemeteries and also on the
00:27:13Mexican table, right? Yes, totally, and in fact tamales, right?
00:27:16Making tamales is this activity that even outside
00:27:20of Mexico continues to be something that connects people, there really
00:27:24is a whole ritual, even something that calms
00:27:27the spirits given how the global situations are, so
00:27:32the social aspect around food and you Mariana, what
00:27:36do you think, this kind of internationalization of the
00:27:39Day of the Dead helps to enrich it
00:27:43or can it blur it? I think
00:27:46we always have to be aware that traditions are always
00:27:50changing, if there is something alive, it is culture, I think the crux
00:27:54of the matter is to understand where that offering comes from,
00:27:57where that manifestation comes from, not if it's something
00:28:00that is going to be commercialized for commercial purposes. That's where it loses its original
00:28:04meaning, which I think is important, that
00:28:08it continues to be communal, for the people, which is also something that
00:28:11implies reciprocity, we understand that this also generates
00:28:15economy, but there are also many actors right now,
00:28:19tourists, governmental and of many kinds who
00:28:22indeed strip communities of their
00:28:25traditions, of their elements to sell them, so I think here
00:28:29we always have to be attentive to the meaning of... who is
00:28:32offering what they are offering and always remember that all this
00:28:36is alive and unites us and is always
00:28:40changing, right? Also, there are always elements, we all participate in these changes,
00:28:43definitely, I love preparing the
00:28:46offering and I say, I'm contributing something new, well,
00:28:50who knows, maybe not now. Look, while in Washington the
00:28:54Catrina protagonizes the celebrations, in another part of
00:28:58the United States we find a
00:29:00very different way of
00:29:02presenting death in Sleepy Hollow
00:29:06north of New York, a literary legend of the 19th
00:29:10century, continues to feed the imagination of its
00:29:13inhabitants and visitors, it is the
00:29:16story of the Headless
00:29:18Horseman who every year is part of the Halloween
00:29:22celebrations. Our correspondent in New York, Henry
00:29:25Camelo, takes us to that town where
00:29:29mystery, fear and also...
00:29:32Spectacle go hand in hand, go ahead with this
00:29:36story by Henry Camelo, studio.
00:29:48Every horror story has an origin, and this one
00:29:52was born on a cold autumn day in a small
00:29:55town north of New York, where
00:29:59legend has it that every night the so-called Headless
00:30:02Horseman appears, and whoever crosses his path
00:30:06could lose theirs. We are
00:30:09in the historic town of Sleepy Hollow, where the
00:30:13legend of the Headless Horseman was born, written in
00:30:16the early 1800s by Washington Irving, considered the
00:30:20father of ghost stories in the United States. The
00:30:24story is based on oral tradition that dates back
00:30:27to the American War of Independence,
00:30:30where a Hessian soldier was
00:30:33hit by a cannonball that decapitated him,
00:30:36and his head was never found. His
00:30:40body was taken to the cemetery of the old Dutch church.