Day of the Dead (dia de los muertos)
Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, is a vibrant Mexican holiday celebrated annually from October 31 to November 2. Recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, this celebration honors deceased loved ones through joyful festivities rather than mourning. Families create altars, or ofrendas, adorned with sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods of the departed, serving as a way to invite their spirits back for a day of remembrance and celebration.
The holiday merges indigenous Aztec traditions with Catholic customs, coinciding with All Saints' Day. It represents a time of spiritual connection, where families gather to pray and commemorate those who have passed away. Unique rituals include visiting cemeteries, decorating graves, and participating in parades and festivals.
While Halloween shares the same dates and focuses on spirits, Day of the Dead emphasizes a positive, almost playful view of death, reflecting a cultural acceptance that contrasts with the somber attitudes often seen in North American celebrations. This holiday has gained recognition outside of Mexico, with celebrations occurring in various communities worldwide, highlighting the growing appreciation for cultural diversity.
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Day of the Dead (dia de los muertos)
Day of the Dead sounds to North Americans like a gruesome, morbid, and chilling event. In fact, it is a Mexican holiday celebration. Dia de Muertos proscribes national days of mourning dedicated to the memories of deceased relatives and friends. It is a time of celebration helping to ease the journey of departed souls into heaven. Mexico declares Day of the Dead a national holiday beginning October 31 and ending November 2 each year. UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity recognizes the holiday. Day of the Dead is not a statutory or civic holiday, but it is a time for festivities like Carnival, Holy Week, Mother’s Day, and similar observances. Day of the Dead combines Aztec cultural religious practices complementing and convoluting with Catholic traditions. Day of the Dead and the Catholic holiday All Saints’ Day or Hallowmas coincide. All are days of spiritual bonding with the dead in heaven.
Background
Friends and families build small shrines to the departed for Day of the Dead. The shrines consist of sugar sculptures formed in the shape of skulls adorned with icing, beads, and feathers. There are flowers, usually marigolds, and the favorite foods of the deceased. Spanish Roman Catholic priests descending on the indigenous Mexican population in the 1500s were unable to rid the people of all vestiges of their ancient traditions. The efforts to kill old culture and rid the people of their religious traditions were standard colonizing tactics to solidify their political rule. Once Mexican independence occurred, nationalists resurrected the centuries-old Aztec festival honoring Day of the Dead as a national event and worldwide symbol. School children learn about the national holiday. There are parades and festivals, and families visit cemeteries praying for their dead. Many religions pray for the dead and have designated a day or period of mourning with prayer and attending to the graves. The Aztecs believed in the afterlife and dedicated festivities to the goddess or Lady of the Dead, celebrating in the summer. In modern times, it became known as a time to mourn dead children or Day of the Innocents. The shrines for children include candies, toys, and trinkets that might also be left on the graves. Other popular items include pillows and blankets for the journey to Heaven, crosses and pictures of the Virgin Mary.
Halloween is a North American one-day holiday celebrated the same day as Day of the Dead. Halloween celebrations traditionally resembled those of Day of the Dead, recalling good and happy times with candy, costumes, festivities, school events, and the like. Halloween celebrates the wandering spirits in the land of the living awaiting their access to Heaven for rest and peace. Here the similarities end. Whereas Americans do not like talking about death—using words like "passing" or "in a better place"—Mexicans are disdainful of death. They scorn and mock death and are practically irreverent about it. It is not a solemn time for them, but a joyful time for the souls of their dead to return one more day.
Day of the Dead Today
Mexicans living in other countries celebrate the Day of the Dead in their own communities while the holiday is becoming more recognized. The Brooklyn Children’s Museum celebrates the day with activities like puppet making, Mexican taste treats, music festivals, and art exhibits. In Los Angeles, there are people dressed in costumes like the calaca, the Day of the Dead skeleton. The Hollywood Forever Cemetery sponsors entertainment alongside personal altars and altars at graves for deceased celebrities. Events on the day are even finding commercial sponsors that are making the day another retail holiday.
The United Kingdom and Mexico have a cultural exchange program. In 2015, a Day of the Dead festival was organized at the British Museum in collaboration with the Embassy of Mexico, adding to the gravitas the holiday has gained with Mexico’s independence.
Globalization is sparking not only international trade and tourism, but also acceptance and respect for cultural diversity. There are children’s books like Sugar Skull Coloring Pages, Day ofthe Dead Coloring Book, a Sugar Skulls Calendar, and posters available for purchase from major online retailers.
The Judeo-Christian religions have holidays and memorial days for the deceased. Memorial Day for soldiers who died in service to their country is a major national holiday in the United States.
America has a fast-growing Hispanic population and student exchange programs with Latin American and South American countries. Students are proud of their heritage and are gaining equal opportunities to share it and their holidays through speeches, art, crafts, food, and explanations about their religious holidays including Day of the Dead. The spread of knowledge about Day of the Dead concomitantly expands political communication.
Meanwhile, should someone die on a national holiday like Christmas, New Year’s, All Saints’ Day, and Day of the Dead, Mexican culture accepts that as a "beautiful death" in the cultural interpretation of death. It is a "good death." Some research suggests a pattern of increased mortality on these religious and spiritual days in a Mexican context. Death is not scary like in Western culture, because the souls do not haunt. The highlights of Halloween in many American communities are the "trick" played on the living, and the haunted house is designed to scare one to death. The Church sought to overwhelm and assimilate what once was considered a pagan holiday by instituting All Saints’ Day, which in the twenty-first century is a holiday of positive practices that show the spirits and souls the living have not forgotten nor abandoned them.
Bibliography
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