The Mexican Day of the Dead

In Mexico Los Dias de los Muertos is the annual fiesta of 'The Days of the Dead'. Celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November are all Saints Day and all Souls Day. On these days it is believed that the Dead return to visit the living. All Saints Day is for the spirits of the children (los angelitos) and All Souls Day for the adult spirits.
The roots of these traditions are ancient, originating before the arrival of the Spanish in the 1550s. There has developed within Mexican Culture a deeply ingrained philosophical acceptance of death. The Mexican writer Octavio Paz has famously described it:

"The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it; it is one of his toys and his steadfast love."

Los Dias de los Muertos is not a morbid or macabre tradition. Mexicans celebrate death on these days, it is a joyful time of remembrance, reunion and feasting as families gather together to honour their loved ones who have died.

At the cemetery, family members engage in sprucing up the gravesite, decorating it with flowers, setting out and enjoying a picnic, and interacting socially with other family and community members who gather there. In both cases, celebrants believe that the souls of the dead return and are all around them. Families remember the departed by telling stories about them. The meals prepared for these picnics are sumptuous, usually featuring meat dishes in spicy sauces, chocolate beverages, cookies, sugary confections in a variety of animal or skull shapes, and a special egg-batter bread ("pan de muerto," or bread of the dead). Gravesites and family altars are profusely decorated with flowers (primarily large, bright flowers such as marigolds and chrysanthemums), and adorned with religious amulets and with offerings of food, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages.

In homes observant families create an altar and decorate it with items that they believe are beautiful and attractive to the souls of their departed ones. Such items include offerings of flowers and food, but also things that will remind the living of the departed (such as their photographs, a diploma, or an article of clothing), and the things that the dead prized and enjoyed while they lived. This is done to entice the dead and assure that their souls actually return to take part in the remembrance.

Death features in a lot of Mexican Folkart, often represented with great humour. We will be adding to this section in the lead up to Dias de los Muertos - keep checking.....

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