Day of the Dead, Mexico

Many Americans believe that humans might be able to engineer and tinker death almost out of existence. We’ll all live to be 150 years old in 30-year-olds’ bodies, then one day peacefully fall apart like the one-hoss shay in the old Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem of the same name. And many of us, when we’re not thinking of conquering death, are scrupulously ignoring it.

Mexicans are more prosaic about death. They see it as both natural and inevitable, therefore not so much to be warred upon or shirked so much as to accommodate. If you add to that sanguine outlook a centuries-old belief that the souls of the departed return annually to visit their families and have a little fun, you can see the genesis of El Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, those Indian tribes in Mexico that had Day of the Dead festivities celebrated them at different times. But the Catholicism of the Spaniards, a powerful synthesizing religion, was able to incorporate the various Indian traditions under its own All Saints (Nov. 1) and All Souls (Nov. 2) feast days.

Thus was born a nationwide tradition, a very rough equivalent to Halloween but far less squeamish about its subject matter. It takes Americans and Europeans a little getting used to the notion that Mexicans have a lot of fun picnicking in graveyards or eating sugar skulls and skeletons as a part of celebrating El Dia de Los Muertos.

The picnics, conducted at relatives’ gravesides, are a chance for families to “talk” to their departed loved ones and to tell stories about them. For the children, it is a way to learn in  festive surroundings about their immediate and distant ancestors, and in so doing cement the bonds of family solidarity.

Part of the menu at these picnics are the favorite food and drinks of the dead family members – another way of reinforcing the connection between the living and the dead.

While all of Mexico celebrates the day, some cities and towns are more noted than the rest for the scale and exuberance of their festivities. There’s an excellent overview of Day of the Dead at http://www.mexonline.com/daydead.htm

Also, in this issue of The Cultured Traveler, see “The Day of the Dead Comes Alive in Oaxaca,” a wonderful recounting of one American’s visit to a cemetery at the height of the festivities.

By Patrick Totty