Mexico: religion is a long road to unity

Mexico is a huge and colorful country on the south coast of the North American continent. Its population today is 113 million people, among whom are representatives of the most diverse world religions. But the most part (which is natural from the historical premises, which will be discussed below) are Catholic Christians.

Mexico: Religion and Culture

Statistics show that in 2010 more than 95% of Mexican citizens identified themselves as Christians. But before you find out what kind of religion in Mexico, it is worth considering that the percentage of emigrated people in this country is quite high. This is the Americans, and the inhabitants of India, Russia, European countries.

Mexico, whose religion is a subject of great national pride, has replaced its confessional composition throughout the entire evolution of the state. It is noteworthy that in the process of colonization and settlement of the continent by the Spaniards in the beginning of the sixteenth century and in the further development of the colonies, indigenous inhabitants - representatives of the ancient tribes - gradually converted to Christianity. Therefore, for today, you can count a few dozen tribes, which completely adopted Catholicism.

Historical reference

The era of ancient tribal ties in Mexico dictated, above all, the cult of the forces of nature: the earth, the sky, the elements. Therefore, the priests of the ancient tribes appealed to their gods to make their farming more productive. The gods could take pity and shed the rain over the huge plowed fields or send their divine punishment to the people in the form of a severe drought.

Sacrifices to the gods were an integral part of the culture of the ancient Mexican tribes. The priests chose the best people in order to make a gift to the higher forces, they brought their first harvest harvest to their totems, believing that they would thus deserve divine mercy. Such a comprehensive presence of religion in the life of ancient societies in its time led to the decline and weakening of civilization.

Colonial period

Christianity came to Mexico not by peaceful means. It was planted by conquistadors and developed with their own participation, when they occupied the mainland, destroying the indigenous population. Since the first Spanish conquerors settled in the territory of modern Mexico, the role of the church has steadily increased.

Until the middle of the XIX century, most of the country's territory belonged to the church administration. But the changes did not make us wait long. With the onset of revolutionary time, the church separated from state administration.

For today, the choice of the basic religion is an individual affair of everyone, and the state itself has a secular nature of government. In general, Mexico, whose main religion is Christianity, has about 3 million members of the Protestant community and half the number of Orthodox Christians.

But separately it is necessary to talk about the participation of church associations in the life of today's Mexico.

Mexico: religion and "symphony of the authorities"

Along with the official government, speaking with political statements and engaging in the activation of civil society, the church actively participates in the struggle against radical sects, and also focuses on the demographic and economic problems of the whole country.

A similar trend is evident in many states to date, and such church intervention in secular affairs is not assessed as something drastically negative, since any oversight is more useful than its absence. This same opinion is shared by Mexico, whose religion has great cultural and historical wealth.

Special culture of the South

Since the Mexicans are the third most populous people of the whole western hemisphere, it can not be not messy. Here there are a variety of cultural, confessional, political and everyday views on life.

In general, hitting this unique country, you immediately understand what's wrong. If you are a person who was fortunate enough to travel in the western hemisphere, then you must have noticed that all the peoples of the south of North America and the north of the South are united by a distinctive feature of the mentality. Mexico, whose religion and culture are extremely rich, will prove to you that all its citizens are united in a single system of Latin American culture, which has been formed for many centuries.

The paganism of the Mexican tribes, followed by the "intervention" of the European colonialists, had a huge influence on it. Modern inhabitants of the country inherited a lot of traditional rituals, cultural norms and a significant part of their mentality from the Spaniards who arrived on the mainland in the sixteenth century. In this regard, it is very revealing that most Mexicans today consider their native language to be Spanish, in its local, dialectal variations.