Day of the Dead: Rituals of Love and Respect

Day of the Dead: Rituals of Love and Respect

Luis Berruecos Villalobos

Mexican Anthropologist, Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de México (UAM)

Estimated reading time: 3 mins approx.

“The Mexican...is familiar with death. [He] jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of  his favourite toys and his most steadfast love”.

Octavio Paz, Mexican Poet

 

El Día de Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is an ancestral tradition celebrated in Mexico and other Latin American countries to honor the lives of deceased relatives and loved ones. As opposed to other festivities surrounding death, Día de Muertos is a profoundly spiritual and colourful celebration of life. November 1 remembers  children and day two the adults who have embarked on their spiritual journey through the afterlife.

The Day of the Dead is a reaffirmation of indigenous life where Aztec, Maya, Nahua and Toltec communities considered death as a natural phase in life’s continuum and as such lost loved ones should be kept alive in spirit and memory.   

Families make offerings (ofrendas) building altars in homes and cemeteries to welcome spirits who temporarily return to the realm of living. The altar stands on a table covered with an embroided cloth, decorated with paper craft (papel picado) where each component has a profound and special meaning. A path with flowers (Cempazuchitl/Marigolds) is made at the entrance to guide wandering souls back to their place of rest. Family photos and candles are placed for each dead relative, including their favourite meals and drinks, as well as the traditional bread (pan de muerto) and sweet skulls (sugar and chocolate calaveritas).

It is also common to write humorous epitpahs -literary calaveras- and draw caricatures of the deceased. The still alive watch all night and eat the offerings: the aroma that emerges from copal incense transmits praise and prayers and this is taken by the deceased reinforcing a relationship that is never lost and is remade every year.

As in other cultures where the general belief is that there is life after death, the rituals around death itself, their fate and the obligations that it imposes on those who remain, are extremely important: death links the members of the community through solidarity ties, establishing a relationship between existence on earth and the final destination. The deceased must present, at the time of his/her death, clear accounts of good and bad actions and to which he/she proved to be a believer, a special place is reserved.

The Day of the Dead has been celebrated in Mexico for more than three thousand years. In 2008 UNESCO added the Día de Muertos to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2003). This popular festivity has attracted international attention due to its unique and colorful features and has become the centre of many events and films such as James Bond's Spectre (2015) and Pixar's Coco (2017). Latinos in the United States use the phrase “Día de Muertos is not Mexican Halloween” to protect this holiday from misrepresentation and spread the real origins of this cultural tradition.

The Day of the Dead is probably the most popular holiday in Mexico. This colourful annual event holds great significance as the fusion of Pre-Hispanic belief systems, religious rites and Catholic feasts brings together two universes, highlighting the importance of remembering with joy and gratitude those who have preceded us.