Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

  

Here in the United States we’ll soon be celebrating Halloween.  The traditions of Halloween are ingrained in our heads, pumpkins, candy, costumes and trick or treating.  Some of us even know the reasons behind the traditions.  Well, other countries have holidays that roughly coincide with our Halloween.  One country that celebrates death a bit differently than us is our neighbor to the south, Mexico.  They will be celebrating The Day of the Dead on November 1st and 2nd.  Being a multi cultural family, this is one of the customs we want to teach our kids to appreciate.  The origins of the celebration began 3000 years ago, long before the Spaniards discovered the New World.  The indigenous people of central Mexico revered, and still revere, death as something special, as a continuation of life.  They believed that, once every year, their dead relatives came back to visit them.  They celebrated one of their many gods during that time, Mictecacihuatl, known as Lady of the Dead.  It was a celebration that lasted about a month and took place in the middle of the summer.

 

From then to Now

 

When the Conquistadors came they tried to convert the Indians to Catholicism and to erradicate pagan traditions.  However, that is easier said than done when the proposition involves millions of natives and just a few thousand Spaniards.  The Spanish were forced by diplomacy to mix Catholic and pagan traditions.  They moved the pagan celebration that the natives already practiced to coincide with All Saints Day and All Souls Day, November 1st and 2nd.  Then they simply did what all good politicians do — they compromised on the specifics.  And, because the natives figured converting was no big deal since they got to keep their core tradition, they converted.  Today, in Mexico, the belief still is that the deceased come on those days to visit their families.  The difference now being that it is a Church sanctioned Holiday that includes many Catholic trappings as well as pagan symbols.  All Saints Day refers to dead children and All Souls Day refers to dead adults.  There are a few typical characteristics of the celebration:

 

Altars

 

A family honoring a death will put together an altar or shrine with items that the departed was known to like during his life.  The altar will have some depiction or representation of the 4 elements.  Earth is represented by crops (usually corn).  Air is represented with colorful decorations made with very thin paper that flap in the air (called papel picado); the colors all represent something (red for example represents the blood of Christ for the Christians and the blood of animals for the pagans).   For water people put at least one glass of water (duh, right), and for fire there are candles burning for as long as the altar is up so there is never darkness.  The altar contains the dead person’s favorite food. Several of his favorite dishes, flowers, a large picture of the person in question, sugar skulls or figurines, traditional bread, and personal items complete the image.  Of course, if the dead person is a child then he would get toys too.

 

Vigil

 

There is a belief that the spirit of the deceased is coming to visit its living family. The family, for their part, sets up shop at the cemetery the night before, waiting for the visit.  They decorate the grave with flowers and, in some towns, families will make a path with flowers and candles that leads from the grave to the house of the deceased.  They stay up all night either by the grave or by the altar burning candles and incense and praying.   People still widely practice this tradition. The festivities have been marred in recent years due to tourism which has disrupted the peace and true meaning of the vigils.  Imagine going to the grave of your grandma and discovering a bunch of tourists wanting to take pictures of you while you pray.

 

Flowers

 

The flowers used for decorations at the altars and the graves are Yellow Marigold, known in Mexico as Cempaxúchitl.  It symbolizes death and the brevity of life even though the flower was also believed to have medicinal properties (it was called the flower of 400 lives). It was, and in some places still is, believed to cure several illnesses — stomach ache, parasites, diarrhea, liver illnesses, vomit, indigestion and toothache to be specific.

 

Sugar Skulls

 

Sugar skulls are little candy treats in the shape of human skulls that are put on the altars as a remembrance of the departed.  They often have the name of the departed written on the forehead. They’re made of sugar because, simply, people think souls like sweet thing (makes sense).  They are colorful pieces of art that candy makers take special care to create.  This is another variation on the original celebrations in prehispanic times, when natives would keep the actual skulls of the departed as a way to venerate them (they would keep them under beds, in boxes or wherever).  We should note that, although it seems morbid to keep skulls lying around the house (sugar or not), the celebration is a time of happiness; death is seen as just another part of life, not the end of it.

 

Food

 

As with almost everything in Mexico food is an expression of more than alimentation. A food made only for Dia de los Muertos is a bread called Hojaldra o Pan de Muerto (The Bread of the Dead).  It’s a sweet bread with bone decorations on the top.  The bread is glazed and decorated with colored sugar.   Here is the recipe for those adventurous enough.

 

Burning Incense

 

Then there is the burning of incense which is expected to attract the dead while also cleansing the area and warding off bad spirits.  It’s not just any incense either; they use Copal which is the sap of an indigenous tree.  The incense is supposed to allow only the spirit of the deceased to come and enjoy the celebration.

 

Despite the modern form of this celebration being born from the turbulent times of the conquest, it is a happy time that is intended to celebrate the stages of life, death being one of those stages.  The traditions involved are sometimes confusing to people who might see them as too morbid and who don’t understand the significance of all the parts.  However, when looked at from the perspective of those involved it becomes clear what it really is, a celebration of the afterlife.     Everybody wants to know what happens after death, right?

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