Mexico Thrives in Welcoming the Dead

Cemeteries filled with families, celebrating the lives of loved ones lost. Bright colors everywhere. And the celebration relies heavily on a steady flow of food and drink. This is indeed a celebration, it is Dia de Muertos!

In Mexico, once a year, life and death are celebrated simultaneously. In the Autumn, the living engage in a communion with their family members that have passed on. The dead return, briefly, taking in the essence of bountiful feasts prepared in their honor, and engage in the pleasures they enjoyed in life. Essentialy, Dia de los Muertos is a private celebration in which familes remember their loved ones that have passed on. However, there are some very public, community based aspects of the celebration as well.

Outline of Dia de los Muertos Activities:

Traditionally, in the last week of October, temporary markets are established offering the flowers, culinary ingredients, toys, and ephemera related to the ritual of Dia de los Muertos.

On the 31st of October, families create an ofrenda in their homes. Essentially an altar, the ofrenda is anoffering of love and respect for the souls of loved ones. Various traditions include placement of photos of the deceased, bread known as Pan de Muerte (Bread of the Dead), water, and other food items they might have enjoyed in life. Ofrenda have also been known to include clothing, and personal grooming items for the souls to freshen up with following their journey from the afterlife. There is always an abundance of flowers, known as cempasúchil, valued for their beauty as well as their pungeant aroma.

Although variations are sometimes experienced in remote
areas of Mexico, popular belief is that the souls of children
arrive home first, on the evening of October 31st. Los Angelitos, spirits of those who passed away as children, are greeted with their favorite food and toys. The food is generally simple and
not very spicy. In some traditions, there is a candlelit procession that takes place leading from the cemetery to the center of the vilage guiding the souls of the children home.

The souls of the adults arrive on November 1st and are given an elaborate offering of the best food and drinks available to the families. Cooked dishes include chicken or turkey mole, tomales, biscuits, and candied fruits. Salt is provided for flavoring. Also, odor is important. The ancient copal incense has been used throughout the centuries, and the pleasant aroma of food is also an incentive for the dead to find their way home.

Various traditions exist for the acknowledgment of Anima Sola, a solitary spirit or soul who has no relatives or friends to care for it, or who has died far from home. There is often an additional candle lit in their honor, and sometimes a candle and ofrenda are placed outside in case the spirit is unfriendly.

Candies, as well as toys are made in the shapes of calavera (skulls and skeletons). Throughout Mexico these calaveras are seen as a promise of afterlife, or resurrection - and very much not a depiction of death. There is much fun had with these figures, the calaveras, as they are formed into toys and paper-mache sculptures, wearing modern clothes and enjoying modern activities.

On the evening of Dia de los Muertos, Nov 1, familes gather in the cemeteries for overnight encampments of sorts, where there is much prayer, laughter, food, and music. As the evening progresses, there is a much more subdued tone as sleepy children and elders rest against gravestones, passing by the hours until morning. Everyone returns home at sunrise.

During the day, on Nov 2nd, familes return to the cemeteries where the tombs and gravestones are cleaned and freshly-painted. Decorations include balloons, as well as dishes of the deceased favorite foods, as represented in the photo above. The traditional flowers, cempasúchil, (Mexican Marigold) are ever present, and lavished along pathways and used in almost every ofrenda.

By taking part in the activities associated with Dia de los Muertos, individuals know they are doing their part to honor the dead. But more importantly, they know that by passing on these traditions, they too will be remembered once they are no longer among the living.

(See story about those who do not participate)

(click here for a glossary of terms)