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Special Tours to: Cemeteries
Traditional Celebrations
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View Parades/Comparsas and Traditional Ceremonies
Dia De Los Muertos/Day of the Dead
A
holiday celebrated in Central & Southern Mexico on November
1st and 2nd, The Day of the Dead is a traditional celebration of
deceased loved ones that are reunited with their families on these
days. In honoring their dead relatives, happy spirits provide
protection, good luck and wisdom to their families.
Elaborate
tiered altars are made and decorated with bright colored tissue
paper. The color purple is used for pain, white for hope, pink for
the celebration. The ofrenda (altar) has photos of the loved one,
tokens that call up memories of their lives, things favored by the
deceased loved ones like toys, bottles of soda, liquor, and
cigarettes. Candles all over the altar illuminate their way. Three
candy skulls representing the Trinity are placed on the second
level, as is Pan de Muerto (bread) accompanied by fruit &
candy. Water with soap and towel is provided so the returning
ghost can wash their hands after their long trip, drinking water
is also provided. (http://www.mimbresarts.org/diadelosmuertos.html)
What
do Mexicans celebrate on the "Day of the Dead?"
This
is an ancient festivity that has been much transformed through the
years, but which was intended in prehispanic Mexico to celebrate
children and the dead. Hence, the best way to describe this
Mexican holiday is to say that it is a time when Mexican families
remember their dead, and the continuity of life.
Two
important things to know about the Mexican Day of the Dead (Día
de los Muertos) are:
- It
is a holiday with a complex history, and therefore its
observance varies quite a bit by region and by degree of
urbanization.
- It
is not a morbid occasion, but rather a festive time.
Daybreak
in the graveyard of Mazatlán de Flores, Oaxaca.
Photography: Lourdes Grobet.
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The
original celebration can be traced to many Mesoamerican native
traditions, such as the festivities held during the Aztec
month of Miccailhuitontli, ritually presided by the "Lady
of the Dead" (Mictecacihuatl), and dedicated to
children and the dead. In the Aztec calendar, this ritual fell
roughly at the end of the Gregorian month of July and the
beginning of August, but in the postconquest era it was moved by
Spanish priests so that it coincided with the Christian holiday of
All Hallows Eve (in Spanish: "Día de Todos Santos.")
This was a vain effort to transform the observance from a profane
to a Christian celebration. The result is that Mexicans now
celebrate the day of the dead during the first two days of
November, rather than at the beginning of summer. But remember the
dead they still do, and the modern festivity is characterized by
the traditional Mexican blend of ancient aboriginal and introduced
Christian features.
Generalizing
broadly, the holiday's activities consist of families (1)
welcoming their dead back into their homes, and (2) visiting the
graves of their close kin. At the cemetery, family members engage
in sprucing up the gravesite, decorating it with flowers, setting
out and enjoying a picnic, and interacting socially with other
family and community members who gather there. In both cases,
celebrants believe that the souls of the dead return and are all
around them. Families remember the departed by telling stories
about them. The meals prepared for these picnics are sumptuous,
usually featuring meat dishes in spicy sauces, chocolate
beverages, cookies, sugary confections in a variety of animal or
skull shapes, and a special egg-batter bread ("pan de muerto,"
or bread of the dead). Gravesites and family altars are profusely
decorated with flowers (primarily large, bright flowers such as
marigolds and chrysanthemums), and adorned with religious amulets
and with offerings of food, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages.
Because of this warm social environment, the colorful setting, and
the abundance of food, drink and good company, this commemoration
of the dead has pleasant overtones for the observers, in spite of
the open fatalism exhibited by all participants, whose festive
interaction with both the living and the dead in an important
social ritual is a way of recognizing the cycle of life and death
that is human existence.
Altar
in a home of the Nahuatl village of Milpa Alta.
Photography: Lourdes Grobet.
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In homes
observant families create an altar and decorate it with items that
they believe are beautiful and attractive to the souls of their
departed ones. Such items include offerings of flowers and food,
but also things that will remind the living of the departed (such
as their photographs, a diploma, or an article of clothing), and
the things that the dead prized and enjoyed while they lived. This
is done to entice the dead and assure that their souls actually
return to take part in the remembrance. In very traditional
settings, typically found only in native communities, the path
from the street to the altar is actually strewn with petals to
guide the returning soul to its altar and the bosom of the family. The
traditional observance calls for departed children to be
remembered during the first day of the festivity (the Day of the
Little Angels, "Día de los Angelitos"), and for adults
to be remembered on the second day. Traditionally, this is
accompanied by a feast during the early morning hours of November
the 2nd, the Day of the Dead proper, though modern urban Mexican
families usually observe the Day of the Dead with only a special
family supper featuring the bread of the dead. In southern Mexico,
for example in the city of Puebla, it is good luck to be the one
who bites into the plastic toy skeleton hidden by the baker in
each rounded loaf. Friends and family members give one another
gifts consisting of sugar skeletons or other items with a death
motif, and the gift is more prized if the skull or skeleton is
embossed with one's own name. Another variation found in the state
of Oaxaca is for bread to be molded into the shape of a body or
burial wrap, and for a face to be embedded on one end of the loaf.
During the days leading up to and following the festivity, some
bakeries in heavily aboriginal communities cease producing the
wide range of breads that they typically sell so that they can
focus on satisfying the demand for bread of the dead.
Preparing
offerings on the eve of the first of November in Ihuatzio,
Michoacán. Photography: Lourdes Grobet.
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The
Day of the Dead can range from being a very important cultural
event, with defined social and economic responsibilities for
participants (exhibiting the socially equalizing behavior that
social anthropologists would call redistributive feasting, e.g. on
the island of Janitzio in Michoacan state), to being a religious
observance featuring actual worship of the dead (e.g., as in
Cuilapan, Oaxaca, an ancient capital of the Zapotec people, who
venerated their ancestors and whose descendants do so to this day,
an example of many traditional practices that Spanish priests
pretend not to notice), to simply being a uniquely Mexican holiday
characterized by special foods and confections (the case in all
large Mexican cities.)
In
general, the more urban the setting within Mexico the less
religious and cultural importance is retained by observants, while
the more rural and Indian the locality the greater the religious
and economic import of the holiday. Because of this, this
observance is usually of greater social importance in southern
Mexico than in the northern part of the country. Salvador,
R. J. (2003). What Do Mexicans Celebrate On The Day Of The Dead?
Pp. 75-76, IN Death And Bereavement In The Americas. Death, Value
And Meaning Series, Vol. II. Morgan, J. D. And P. Laungani (Eds.)
Baywood Publishing Co., Amityville, New York. Visit - http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/muertos.html
Visit these links:
*
Dia De Los Muertos Special rate is based on availability and advanced
booking. This rate does not include tax and gratuities. Food,
transportation, tours and special services are additional.
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