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By ICTMN Staff October 30, 2011

Mexico is where it all began. When the Spaniards arrived, Indigenous Peoples had already been celebrating their ancestors every year for at least 3,000 years. The conquerers, thinking that was just one of many rituals that defined Aztecs and others as savages, killed the month-long festival that began around early August and changed the date to November 1 and 2, aligning the festivities with the Catholic holiday All Saints Day and All Souls Day, respectively.

However, far from mocking death, as the Spaniards assumed, pre-Hispanic Mexicans were honoring it, seeing life as a dream and death as the awakening.

“The pre-Hispanic people honored duality as being dynamic,” Christina Gonzalez, senior lecturer on Hispanic issues at Arizona State University, told the Arizona Republic. “They didn’t separate death from pain, wealth from poverty like they did in Western cultures.”

The juxtaposition has today created a national holiday that unites Mexico’s varied cultures, forming a bridge between indigenous and those of European heritage. Just about every Mexican honors deceased loved ones, be it with a graveside picnic in the countryside among rural indigenous, or an altar set up in the living room containing offerings and pictures of deceased family members, and decorated with colorful objects.

Preparation starts during the third week of October, with the street markets well stocked with sugar calaveras, or skulls, and the plant stalls vending pot after pot of chrysanthemums, or marigolds, whose petals guide the visiting souls back to the land of the living for their annual visit. Women get busy preparing molé, which takes days, and other traditional dishes. Bakeries churn out loaves of pan de muertos, special skull-shaped loaves whose foreheads are frosted with the name of the departed. Altars are also set up in public places, from shopping malls to movie theaters.

Not Just for the Dead But Also the Living

Mexicans defy and laugh in the face of death, giving the impression that they do not take it seriously, and it is said that the Spaniards misinterpreted that as a mockery of death. But far from taking death lightly, Mexicans ponder it along with their life while chiming the church bells to summon the spirits. Thus Day of the Dead is also a celebration of life and a time to reflect on the gift of life, and on what your mission is.

Even those who don’t go so far as to hang out at the cemetery at least create altars in their homes to honor those who have died. It’s also not uncommon to find altars in shopping malls, movie theaters, department stores and other public-type places. Rather than being set up with specific photos of the deceased, the decorations are of skeleton figures, many of them life-sized.

Mexico City’s government holds a contest on the Zocalo, or main square, every year, in which people compete for a prize for the most imaginative paper-maché figure. The result is bigger-than-life skeleton effigies arranged in casual poses—lying down and leaning on an elbow, for instance—all around this most colossal of public spaces.

In the rest of the country, in places such as the island of Janitzio in Patzcuaro, in the state of Michoacan, and in Oaxaca—hark back to their ancient practices, decorating gravesites with their beloveds’ favorite foods and possessions, and in many cases holding an overnight candlelight vigil. Cemeteries glow with ethereal candlelight as families picnic on the graves, communing with their loved ones on this day when the portal between the two worlds is opened.

Dishes and Symbols

Food is an important part of this celebration. The deceaseds’ favorite comestibles are made and brought as ofrendas, or offerings. Luckily those happen to be favorites of the living as well.

According to Mexonline.com, a website devoted to all things Mexican, dishes can include black molé with chicken or turkey. When available, duck is the preferred choice. In fact, Day of the Dead celebrations on Janitzio begin with a ceremonial duck hunt. Later that day the roasted duck becomes part of the celebratory meal.

“The most vivid and moving Day of the Dead celebrations take place on the island of Janitzio in Lago de Patzcuaro,” Mexonline.com says. “Here, at the crack of dawn (on November 1st) the Purepechan Indians get the festivities going with a ceremonial duck hunt. At midnight, the cooked duck and other zesty edibles are brought to the cemetery in the flickering light of thousands of candles. Those visitors who come are in for an awesome spectacle as the women pray and the men chant throughout the chilly night. Other candlelit ceremonies take place in the nearby towns of Tzintzuntzan (the ancient capital of the Purepechan people), Jarauaro and Erongaricuaro.”

Pan de Muerto, or bread of the dead, is baked at this time of year, flavored with anise or ground cinnamon. It’s a staple, with a twist: the finished product is fashioned into a skull and adorned in icing with the name of the deceased it’s honoring. Tequila is abundant, of course, as is atole, a traditional drink of cornmeal and water, flavored with fruits.

November 1 is All Saints’ Day, and it is used to honor departed children. Their graves are decorated with balloons and toys. Little girls in traditional pinafores perform ceremonies with their families watching. It’s a way of teaching them to honor the dead and to begin teaching them that death is not the enemy, or the end.

The graves are tended—cleaned and decorated—and tokens of the deceased person’s life are left behind. Tequila runs abundantly, along with mescal or pulque. There is reminiscing, and people write mock epitaphs and tell funny anecdotes, as well as pen poems known as calaveras (skulls).

Oaxaca, Patzcuaro (in Michoacan, the town containing the island of Janitzio), Huejutla (State of Hidalgo), Chiapa de Corzo (Chiapas), Jesus Maria (Nayarit), Mixquic (Federal District) and even Tecate (Baja California) offer the most spectacular Day of the Dead festivities, according to Mexonline.com, and people flock to them from around the world annually.

Celebrations vary from town to town and region to region in Mexico, but all are a mix of blended traditions, melding into a single theme: the worship of the continuum between life and death, the celebration and love of life, and of the people we have loved, and lost—though who we’ll be joining all too soon.

Around the World

Today Day of the Dead inspires celebrations worldwide, especially in the United States, many of whose Mexican immigrants are indigenous. In California, Arizona and many other states there are exhibitions, parties and ceremonies. Much of the rest of Latin America observes the Day of the dead too, with festivities in Guatemala, Brazil and Bolivia (the latter on November 8).

Between now and November 2, Indian Country Today Media Network will bring you a look at how Day of the Dead is being celebrated outside Mexico. On Halloween itself, “Day of the Dead, Part II: Re-Made in America” offers a tour of the holiday around the U.S., and on November 1 we’ll bring you the world with “Day of the Dead, Part III: Blending Traditions.” Then on Wednesday, the Day of the Dead, take a video tour.


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