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

Introduction

The Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated around the world wherever Hispanic communities are found, including North America, Brazil, and Spain. Its roots lie in both the Roman Catholic observance of All Saints and All Souls Days in November and in the pagan customs of the Aztecs, who celebrated 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 spiritual associations — Masses and prayers offered for the dead — of Roman Catholicism.

In fact, Day of the Dead celebrations were largely unknown in Mexico before the 1900s. Prior to the Revolution of the early 20th century, much of Mexico celebrated only the Catholic All Saints and All Souls Days and resisted any observance by nationalistic or pagan groups, viewing syncretic combinations of pagan and Catholic celebration as theologically impure. However, once the revolutionaries defeated the Cristeros in the first half of the 20th century, the new Mexican government made the Day of the Dead a national holiday and began a public policy of promoting it in schools (Lee, 2002). Thus, the Day of the Dead is culturally a product of the revolutionary government that came to power in Mexico in the 20th century, and its purpose is to advance a syncretistic form of worship (Day, 2003). This promotion became especially powerful after the Second Vatican Council, when the Roman Catholic Church itself began encouraging more nationalistic and syncretistic forms of worship.

Origins

According to Miller (2005), it was the indigenous people of Mexico who sustained the Day of the Dead, as it was considered a tradition among the natives of the land in pre-Columbian times. Before the holiday was revived through government initiatives in the 20th century, it was celebrated around August, in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar — and it lasted not a single day but an entire month. The festival honored Mictecacihuatl, the goddess said to have died at birth. Just as the Aztecs incorporated skulls into 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 into the Day of the Dead festivities, encourages families to visit the graveyards of loved ones and offer prayers. A priest would also attend and recite canonical prayers in a formal ritual. The entire month of November came to be known as Poor Souls Month, during which Catholics dedicated themselves to offering works of prayer and penance for the souls in Purgatory awaiting release to Heaven. Catholics believed that such prayers and penances could hasten the release of souls from their temporal punishment. In the Day of the Dead celebration, the graveyard visit remains customary but has taken on a more festive character: families decorate graves and leave the deceased's favorite foods and snacks as a remembrance. The focus shifts away from prayer for the soul and toward celebrating the life the person lived on earth. This shift is a product of the syncretism promoted by both government and Church in the 1960s, as well as by the revival of ancient pagan traditions.

Celebration Rituals and Practices

Another central ritual of the Day of the Dead is the construction of homemade altars. Celebrants decorate these altars festively with candles, flowers, photographs of loved ones, and the deceased's favorite foods and drinks, making the altar personal and demonstrating that the living still remember the dead (Kanellos, 1994, p. 333). These altars can be assembled in an hour using sugar cane stalks. The stalks are tied to the legs of a table and extend upward, serving as support beams for an arch that transforms an ordinary household table into a sacred altar. The arch symbolizes the gateway between life and death. A covered box placed in the center at the back of the table beneath the arch can replicate the tabernacle found on Catholic altars in the Old World. The table is covered with a cloth, photographs of the honored dead are displayed, and a pitcher or cup of water — symbolizing purity and life and offering drink to returning spirits — is added. Flowers are essential, and food items complete the display.

The ritual is a fiesta in Mexico and is therefore a social affair, drawing family and friends together. Although private altars serve personal commemorative purposes, the broader community participates in the fiesta, making it a genuinely communal occasion.

An equally important element of the Day of the Dead is the making and distributing of candy skulls to family and friends. The names of loved ones are inscribed on the skulls "as a mocking reminder of the pervasiveness of death" (Kanellos, 1994, p. 333). These candy skulls are called Calaveras — a word that also refers to satirical death notices or poems typically written about politicians. The Calavera is therefore simultaneously humorous and serious; culturally, it intertwines the social and political dimensions of the celebration.

The Day of the Dead is not celebrated identically across all parts of Mexico. In some communities the observance lasts an entire week and takes on a pronounced nationalistic character, with reenactments and displays of diverse Hispanic and Mesoamerican traditions. In Chiapas, the emphasis falls on processions and public ceremonies, whereas in the Valley of Mexico, the decoration of altars and tombs is the predominant form of celebration.

Conclusion

The essence of the Day of the Dead, however, is similar throughout the land: it is a time to make an offering to the deceased — whether the focus is a celebration of life, a celebration of death, or prayers and penance for the souls of the faithful departed. The impulse to offer something to those who have passed away is universal to the celebration. 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.

References

Day, F. S. (2003). Latina and Latino Voices in Literature: Lives and Works. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Kanellos, N. (1994). Handbook of Hispanic Culture in the United States: Anthropology. Houston, TX: Arte Publico Press.

Lee, S. (2002). Mexico and the United States. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish.

Miller, C. (2005). History: Indigenous people wouldn't let 'Day of the Dead' die. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved from http://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/holidays/day-of-the-dead/2014/09/24/day-of-the-dead-history/16174911/

Weiss, A. (2010). Why Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/nov/02/mexican-celebrate-day-of-dead