Day of the Dead: Origins, Traditions, and Cultural Significance

Introduction

The Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday that is celebrated around the world in countries where Hispanic populations are located, such as North America, Brazil, and Spain. Its roots are located both in the Roman Catholic observance of All Saints and All Souls Days in November and in the pagan customs of the Aztecs, who celebrated the worship of Mictecacihuatl, the Queen of the Underworld. In recent times, the Day of the Dead has taken on a more nationalistic meaning than the traditional associations of spirituality—masses and prayers offered for the dead—of Roman Catholicism.

Notably, Day of the Dead celebrations were unheard of in Mexico before the 1900s. Prior to the Revolution of the early twentieth century, much of Mexico celebrated only the Catholic All Saints and All Souls Days and resisted any celebration by nationalistic or pagan sects of the Day of the Dead, which they viewed as syncretistic (a mixture of pagan and Catholic celebrations). However, once the revolutionaries defeated the Cristeros in Mexico in the first half of the twentieth century, the new Mexican government made the Day of the Dead a national holiday and began a public policy of spreading it in schools (Lee, 2002). Thus, Day of the Dead is culturally a product of the revolutionary government that came to power in Mexico in the twentieth century, and its purpose is to promote a syncretistic form of worship (Day 2003). This promotion became especially powerful after the Second Vatican Council, when the Roman Catholic Church began promoting more nationalistic and syncretistic forms of worship as well.

According to Miller (2005), it was the indigenous people of Mexico who supported the Day of the Dead, as it was said to be a tradition among the natives of the land in pre-Columbian times. Before the Day of the Dead was brought back through government initiatives in the twentieth century, it was celebrated around August, or in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar. It did not last just a single day but rather for an entire month. The reason it was celebrated in honor of Mictecacihuatl was because it was said that the goddess died at birth. Thus, just as the Aztecs used skulls in their rituals, the celebration of the Day of the Dead incorporated skull imagery. Today, children make sugar skulls and other treats and decorate gravesites in honor of deceased loved ones.

The Roman Catholic tradition, which is partly incorporated in Day of the Dead festivities, encourages families to visit graveyards of loved ones where they might offer prayers. A priest would go as well and offer canonical prayers in a ritual. In fact, the whole of November came to be known as Poor Souls Month, in which Catholics would dedicate the entire month to offering works of prayers and penance for poor souls in Purgatory, who were waiting to be released to go to Heaven. Catholics believed that by praying for them and doing penance, the souls could be released from their temporal punishment sooner rather than later.

Origins

In the Day of the Dead celebration, this graveyard visit is still customary, but it has taken on a more festive demeanor. Families decorate the graves and leave the deceased one's favorite snacks and foods at the grave as a remembrance. The focus is less on the soul of the person and prayer for that soul, and more on the life of that person and what they enjoyed on earth. This shift is a product of the syncretism that was promoted by both government and Church in the 1960s as well as by the renewal of an ancient pagan faith.

Another central ritual of celebrators of Day of the Dead is the construction of homemade altars for their houses, decorated festively with candles, flowers, pictures of loved ones, and the deceased one's favorite foods and drinks to make the altar more personal and to show that the living ones on earth still remember the dead (Kanellos, 1994, p. 333). These altars can be constructed in an hour using the stalks of sugar cane. These canes can be tied to the legs of a table and, extending upward over the table, serve as support beams for an arch that can be attached, transforming an ordinary household table into an altar. The arch is a symbol of the gateway to death from life.

Catholic altars in the Old World typically held a tabernacle, wherein was located God in the species of the Holy Eucharist. That tabernacle can be replicated using a covered box and placed in the center but at the back of the table beneath the arch. The table should also be covered with a cloth. Photos of the person to whom the altar is dedicated can be placed on the altar, or if it is for several persons, several photographs can be printed and placed on it. A pitcher or cup of water, which symbolizes purity and life, can be put on the altar as well. In the belief that the spirits of the dead come back to earth during this time, the water is also a means of drink for them. Flowers are essential for a Mexican Day of the Dead altar, and food items should be placed on it as well. Following this formula, one can make their own Day of the Dead altar at home.

Celebration Practices

The ritual is a fiesta in Mexico and is thus to be considered a social affair, made for family and friends to gather and participate. It is communal, and although the private altars made for personal reasons are present, the overall community participates in the fiesta, thus making it a social occasion.

Another important part of the Day of the Dead is the making of candy skulls and giving them out to family and friends. The names of loved ones are put on the skulls "as a mocking reminder of the pervasiveness of death" (Kanellos, 1994, p. 333). These candy skulls are called Calaveras, which is another word for fake or satirical death notices and poems typically written about politicians. So the Calaveras is one part humorous and one part serious, but culturally it serves to intertwine both the social and the political aspects of the celebration.

The Day of the Dead ritual is not celebrated in the same way in all places in Mexico. For instance, in some communities it lasts for an entire week and takes on a special nationalistic character, as reenactments are performed and different Hispanic and Meso-American traditions are celebrated. In Chiapas, the emphasis is on processions and public ceremonies, whereas in the Mexico Valley, altars and tombs are decorated as the popular form of celebration.

Regional Differences and Local Customs

Many Central American traditions converge in the celebration of the Day of the Dead as far as food preparation goes. For example, from the nation of Ecuador comes the making of bread dolls (guaguas de pan), while from El Salvador comes bunuelos (fritters) and corn bread. A ginger beer (chichi de jenjibre) is also made in Central America. Weiss (2010) notes that today the Day of the Dead in Mexico is celebrated from October 28th to November 2nd, which is a national holiday. It is popularly believed that during this time the dead "have divine permission to visit friends and relatives on earth and enjoy once again the pleasures of life" (Weiss, 2010).

Thus, one can see that the Day of the Dead has evolved from the Catholic ritual of prayer and penance for the souls of the dead to a type of pagan celebration in which the dead return to the land of the living to take part in earthly pleasures and delights. The emphasis is apparent: it is more earthly, worldly, and sensual than it is spiritual—but that is the point of syncretism and of the revolutionary government which clashed so violently with the Catholic Cristeros in Mexico. As Weiss states, the Day of the Dead is more of a celebration of life than it is a "sober mourning of its passing," even though this sentiment does not exactly address the spiritual foundation of the All Saints and All Souls Days as celebrated by Roman Catholics in pre-revolutionary Mexico.

However, Weiss does lean on the work of anthropologist Claudio Lomnitz, who states that the Mexican cultural engagement with the theme of death puts it at odds with modern cultural trends, which tend to make death "go away" or paint it in a different light. Lomnitz asserts that the cultural appeal of the Day of the Dead is one part Christian heritage, one part Aztec heritage, and one part Mexican revolution. Each had its fair share of death and thus death is in the "blood" of Mexicans. It is so much a part of their identity that it is natural for them to want to celebrate it.

For example, in Michoacán, in Patzcuaro, there is a tradition that is very unique to this locale when it comes to celebrating the Day of the Dead. Here, if the dead one is a child, there is a specific ritual that the community follows. On the Day of the Innocents, November 1st, in the year following the death of the child, a table is placed in the home of the parents of the deceased child, and it is set up by the godparents of the child. So in this way there is a union of the spiritual (godparents) with the temporal (parents). The godparents put on the table a crucifix and rosary along with candles, candies, fruit, and bread of the dead. This action combines the spiritual and the earthly, with the fruit and candies there to remind one of what a child likes and the crucifix and rosary there to remind one of what a child needs: prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary with the rosary and Redemption via Our Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time, the occasion is festive, and so there is dancing and lots of colorful clothing, masks, and costumes to be seen. The occasion is not without its reliance upon skulls and devil imagery, which shows the mix of death symbolism and Christian imagery in this festival.

Nonetheless, throughout the town one finds these images, especially in plazas and gardens. At midnight as November 1st turns to November 2nd, a candlelit procession begins with floats made with large wings attached to them so that the floats resemble butterflies. These floats are used to carry people out to an island in the middle of a lake. On this island is a graveyard, and here the ceremonies of the Dead are carried out in honor of the Day of the Dead.

However, in Morelos, in Ocotepec, the celebrations are very different. In homes where someone has died during the year, the owners of the house will invite everyone to visit. They open their doors to the neighborhood, and to each visitor they give a tamale. People will come from all over to receive their tamale and to see the altars that the people have set up in their homes. It is a very popular celebration, and the visitors give the owners of the home small candles made of wax, which the owners can use on their altar or at another time if they choose. Thus, there is a pleasant exchange of goods and social celebration all in the spirit of the Day of the Dead. People give gifts and invite strangers into their homes to see the work they have done on their altars. Therefore, some altars are very elaborately ornamented, and it is an occasion that people take very seriously and spend a lot of time perfecting.

Alternately, in some parts of Mexico, the tradition is very similar to that in America, where children dress up in costumes and go door to door to receive a gift of candy. While it is not known as trick-or-treating, as it is in America, the celebration is much the same, although what the children go to receive is called calaverita.

Conclusion

The essence of the feast of the Day of the Dead, however, is similar throughout the land: it is a time to make an offering to the dead or to loved ones that are deceased. Whether the focus is on a celebration of life or a celebration of death, or on prayers and penance for the souls of the faithful departed, the sense that an offering should be made is prevalent throughout. Customs may differ from town to town, and the feast itself may be the product of syncretism in both church and government in Mexico, but the people celebrate according to a deep faith that is one part indigenous, one part Catholic, and one part revolutionary and modern.