Despite the lack of acceptance at the institutional level of a direct relationship between the celebration of the Day of the Dead with some sport in Mexicodisciplines of indigenous origin such as purépecha ball Over the years, it has built a certain bond with this holiday, to the point that today it is an activity that is used in certain regions of the country to commemorate and honor loved ones who are no longer physically present.
Originally from the western region of the country, but with a greater presence in the State of Michoacanthis discipline that is played with wooden sticks and a rag ball and a game idea similar to hockeyhas built its relationship with the Day of the Dead mainly through community tradition (the original indigenous peoples), to the point of playing today a variant called ball on and whose main characteristic is that the ball is set on fire and in some regions it is practiced at the end of the day.
“The lit ball is the ritual form of the ball game, in which there are various symbolisms with light, fire and the transit with which the deceased are guided through the lit ball,” he explains. Ana Claudia Colladopresident of the Mexican Federation of Indigenous Games and Sports.
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Purépecha pelota, with more than 2 decades of regulation
Given its characteristics, the Purépecha pelota has been established for more than two decades as one of the disciplines that has been sportified and regulated so that it coexists in the communities with their cultural context and in the competitive field.
Today it has been developed through said federation in up to 12 States, to have a National Championship annually and according to figures from the institution, there are little more than 800 players who practice it in Mexicowith local associations that have brought it closer to such communities and that today allow it to be practiced at any age, from five or six years old and onwards.
Authorities also recognize the ulama or also known as the mesoamerican ball gameas another of the sports whose worldview is linked to issues such as life and death and that currently has a record throughout the region where more than three thousand fields have been found for a sport played for more than three thousand 500 years.
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Data
Michoacán is the current champion of Purépecha pelota, after the most recent National Sports Meeting Indigenous held a week ago in the State of Morelos.
Purépecha pelota can be practiced both on large fields with diameters similar to those of soccer, or in small spaces and whose rules are similar to hockey, which today is practiced at the Olympic level.
The Mexican Federation of Indigenous Games and Sports highlights that until more than 20 years ago, the practice of these disciplines was subject to older people in the communities and today they have been incorporated from children and adolescents.
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