Los Dias de los Muertos
On November 1st and 2nd, many countries celebrate All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween), All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. In some Latin American countries, the day is known as Los Dias de los Muertos (“The Days of the Dead”). In Mexico, these days have become a spectacular national holiday. Unlike many All Souls’ Days celebration, in Mexico, Los Dias de los Muertos is a colorful, joyful time of parades and festivities. People dress up as ghouls, ghosts, mummies and skeletons and parade through the town carrying open coffins. The “corpse” inside the coffin smiles as it is carried through the streets, and local vendors toss oranges inside as the procession makes its way past their markets. Lucky “corpses” may also be showered with flowers, fruits, and candies. There are skeletons, skulls and coffins made of chocolate and marzipan, and special loaves of sweet bread, called “pan de muertos,” decorated with “bones.” Handmade skeleton figurines, called “calacas,” are seen everywhere. These skeletons have an active life: they are musicians, brides or generals on horseback. Death has many nick-names: La Catrina, la Flaca, la Huesuda, la Pelona–Fancy Lady, Skinny, Bony, Baldy.
Families welcome the dead back into their homes, and they visit the dead at the cemeteries. At home, families arrange “offrendas,” altars with foods such as bread, fruits and candy. The altars are decorated with flowers, pictures of deceased family members, and candles that burn all night to commemorate the departed. Families go to cemeteries to clean and weed the graves of their loved ones and then decorate the graves with flowers, bread, fruit and candles. Some families spend the entire night in the cemeteries, remembering the dead with stories and music.
In some areas, the first day is dedicated to remembering departed children (the Day of the Little Angels, “Día de los Angelitos”); adults are remembered on the second day.
Origins of Los Dias de los Muertos
The celebration of Los Dias de los Muertos, like the customs of Halloween, evolved with the influences of the Celtics, the Romans, and the Christian holy days of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. But it also incorporates pre-hispanic Aztec, who believed in an afterlife in which the spirits of their dead would return as hummingbirds and butterflies. With its blending of pre-Hispanic, Roman Catholic and urban popular culture, Los Dias de Los Muertos is a perfect example of the blended traditions of Mexican culture.
The original Aztec celebration was presided over by the “Lady of the Dead,” and dedicated to children and the dead, thus celebrating the continuity of life. Death held a significant place in the rituals of Mexico’s ancient civilizations. Among the Aztecs, it was considered a blessing to die in childbirth, battle or human sacrifice, for these assured the victim a desirable destination in the afterlife. In the Aztec calendar, this holiday fell at the end of the Gregorian month of July and the beginning of August, but in the post-conquest era Spanish priests moved the holiday so that it coincided with the Christian holiday of All Hallows Eve .
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