For Spanish Hispanic peoples in the United States and Mexico observe an important holiday beginning on the last day of October. Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, has considerable religious significance and predates the conquest of Mexico by Hernando Cortez.
The festive period begins on the night of October 31 and continues through All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, celebrated November 1st and 2nd respectively. On the night of October 31st, in rituals that recall the ancestor worship of their Indian forefathers, many Mexican families erect altars to the dead, in their homes. Included on these altars are ofrendas, offerings of the favorite foods and drinks of the departed, to be enjoyed by their spirits when they return to visit their loved ones. The altar is laden with bright orange marigolds (the zempoalxochitl, flower of the dead) and lighted with a multitude of candles.
Traditionally, the altar is lighted on the 31st to await the arrival of the spirits of dead children, los angelitos. At twilight on November 1st until dawn of the 2nd, the altar is again lighted and this time the vigil is for the departed adults.
This is a time of happy communion with the dead, not a time of sorrow. Nobel Prize winner, Octavio Paz, in his essay, The Labyrinth of Solitude," explores the Mexican fascination with the duality of life and death. "Our relations with death are intimate," Paz writes, "more intimate perhaps than those of any other people. The word death is not pronounced in New York, in Paris, in London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death; jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it; it is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love."
He further described this almost ghoulish celebration as a type of escape from the difficulties of everyday existence - not only poverty, but also a kind of blackness in the soul which perhaps has its roots in the joining of two antagonistic groups; the Indian and the Spanish. Whatever the reason this Mexican fiesta is a full-blooded affair, colorful, highly emotional and it lasts for days.
On Dia de los Angelitos, "Day of the Little Angels", the souls of the little children are said to return home. They find an abundance of candies, cookies, milk and honey and other favorite foods awaiting them. Nearby toys are placed for them to play with after they finish eating.
The following night, November 1st, is for the returning adult souls. They are greeted with more abundant fare; turkey with mole (chocolate and chile sauce), chayote, a potato-like vegetable, and pan de muertos, bread shaped in the forms of skulls and skeletons. Additionally, tequila, pulque, or other local fermented drink is available in abundance.
Friends and family usually celebrate both nights, often talking with the departed ones in a very convincing manner. They rarely partake of the food prepared for the spirits, but later give it to friends or less fortunate neighbors. In rural communities in Mexico it is not uncommon for the local curandero (healer or wise man) to say a mass for the recent dead, followed by great amounts of tequila, tamales for the living, and a night of dancing, song and bonfires.
The most colorful celebration in Mexico is probably on the island of Janitizio, in the middle of Lake Patzcuaro high in the mountains between Guadalajara and Mexico City.
As night falls the lights of thousands of candles are seen in the hands of the Tarascan Indians as they make their way to the cemetery. The women, wearing heavy black pleated skirts, embroidered aprons and blouses, their black hair in long braids adorned with yarn and ribbons, carry ofrendas (offerings) of elaborately formed bread, to the graveyard where they will sit by the graves of their loved ones to await the souls who travel through the pines and over the lake to visit with them. Sounds of violins and guitars drift across the waters to the mainland with melodies from ancient times.
Early on the morning of November 1st, the Tarascan men climb into their dugout canoes and paddle out on the lake in search of wild duck. They circle around the ducks and hurl harpoon-like weapons, called atlatl, at the ducks. When this long bamboo spear, a prized weapon for the Indians since 2000 B.C., hits its mark it stands upright in the water. The duck are prepared in spicy sauces on open fires throughout the village and feasted upon by all.
For weeks before the celebration, death is marketed in the stores and on the streets of Mexico in the form of tiny skulls of spun sugar, elaborately decorated sugar skeletons, and tiny coffins made of candy. Children are eager to have death's head masks and amuse themselves with toy funeral processions and miniature altars made of wood or clay.
Death is also the theme of the Calaveras, (literally skulls, or skeletons) which are mock obituaries or satirical verses appearing in the local newspapers at this time of the year. The verses and writings often spoof politicians and film stars and may touch on matters that cannot otherwise be discussed.
While the Spaniards arriving in the New World brought with them the Catholic All Saints' and All Souls days, the Indians they found in the Americas already believed that life depended upon death. The Mayans, who believed man sprang from the corn plant, carved corn plants into their tombstones. The corn plant is the Mayan symbol of life and fertility.
The Aztecs believed that the god Quetzalcoatl poured his blood over the bones of his ancestors gathered from Mictlan, "home of the dead", to begin the human race.
Glimpses of the festivities can be found in towns and cities throughout the United States where there is a Mexican population. In Mexico, the most colorful celebrations are found in the states of Michoacan and Oaxaca. However, the visitor has only to visit the cemetery in any small village on November 1st to find it adorned with bright gold flowers, candle wax and the remnants of a feast prepared for a departed soul.
Linda Neil has lived and worked in Mexico for over twenty five years and maintains homes in both Los Cabos, and in Uruapan, in the state of Michoacan, Mexico. She is the founder of "The Settlement Company", located in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur. It is probably the first escrow company in Mexico. Additionally Ms. Neil is a co-founder of the Los Cabos Cultural Foundation and ROMALI, an academy of music, located in Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico.
