Day of the Dead… a uniquely Mexican Fiesta.
Día de los Muertos is the holiday that most reflects the culture of Mexico. It is appealing to some foreigners and appalling to others. In the pre-Hispanic Mexican culture, engaged in the perpetual process of creation and destruction. Like people everywhere, Mexicans fear death, but we have a special relationship with it: we mock it, joke with it, tease it, dance with it, create art about it, and most of all honor it publicly.
The spirited Days of the Dead images that began in the Mexican popular culture are slowly being embraced in the U.S. Calacas, dancing skeletons, and other death images called muertos, adorn some of the most beautiful and sophisticated homes, north for the border. They are represented both, in folk art that is displayed and household items that are in use daily.
The ancient Aztecs considered death the beginning of liked, so the maximum aspiration for the culture was a glorious death. The most honored death, la muerte florida or the flowering death, could only be achieved by dying through ritual sacrifice to the Gods, dying in combat or dying in childbirth. They believed that all souls lived on after the forty day journey of death was completed. They returned to earth for one day each year, seeking nourishment, community and remembrance. It is important for Mexican families to maintain a good relationship with their dead relatives because it is the dead who bring good fortune to the living.
The Aztecs honored their dead with fiestas and rituals connected to the season of harvest. The ancient ritual calendar, still in use today, designates November 1st, the “Little” Feast for the Dead, as the day to pay tribute to the deceased children and November 2snd, the “Great” Feast for the Dead, to pay tribute to the deceased adults. Both days are celebrated with beautiful, artful and touching traditional altars created especially for the occasion – in homes businesses and cemeteries. The visible preparations for the celebrations begin in med-October. A great effort is made in the preparation of traditional foods and the altar, known as the ofrenda. Artifacts carried over from the pre-Colombian Aztec culture, but still relevant in modern times: candles, masks, flowers sugar skulls, papel picado, skeletons, traditional foods, favorite drinks and vices, copal incense, bread, handmade toys, children’s clothing, household images of saints and musical instruments are used to create the beautiful ofrendas.
The journey from Mictlan, the Aztec name for the underworld, is long, tiring and treacherous. A wash basin, town, soap and a mirror are placed near the ofrenda so the departed spirit can cleans themselves before joining in the festivities. A glass of water is always set out for the soul to quench its thirst. Other beverages served at the feast are agua fresca, fruit-flavored water and stole, the popular hot, chocolate-flavored corn drink sold on the streets of Mexico. Decorated sugar skulls are an essential part of the altar and, in the weeks preceding the holiday, women work around the clock to prepare the sugar creations sold in the famous sugar markets of Patzcuaro and San Miguel de Allende. The names of the departed are written on the sugar skulls, but also can be found in these mercados. Sweets are particularly essential for the muertitos, dead little ones, as are newly purchased toys. The abundance of coconut in brown sugar syrup, ensure that muertitos will need to visit a dentist upon their return to the other side.
Traditional meals, comprised of favorite foods of the deceased are set to in various clay pots. They might include the finest ears of the harvest corn, home-made tamales, rich mole chicken, chili adobe sauce, red rice, hand-rolled enchiladas, fresh tortillas and delicious fruits of the season. A dish of salt, symbolizing purification, is always included. The pan de muertos; rich egg breads made in the shape of animas are placed on the altars. They are decorated with sugar angels or baker’s clay images of Jesus and other saints and also bear the names of the deceased. It is believed that the soul can taste the food through the smells and that the spirit consumes the essence of the meal. When the spirit has had its fill, the feast is then shared with relatives and visiting friends.
The ofrenda is usually set up on a table or on a straw mat on the floor. Every item on the altar has some significance. The yellow marigold, called zempoazochitl in Aztec, is the flower of death, and the markets are transformed into brilliant fields of gold in the days leading up to the holiday. The marigold carries the smell of death, which leads the deceased home. Nube and magenta terciopelp, baby’s breath and win-colored coxcombe respectively, are also used. A copal incense burner, placed in the center, produces a pungent wordy aroma that also guides the dead to the ofrenda. Images of favorite saints and candles decorated with ribbons are placed on the altar, one for each deceased family member. As the candle is lit, the names of the departed are called out, as if to say “Come back home, my son, your family awaits you”. The flame of the candle lights the way. Family photographs and objects that the departed valued in the life are set out to give the dead the feeling of being home again. The dead care about the material things of their former life and are comforted by their favorite possessions. Huaraches, rebozos, straw hats, saddles and carving tools are some of the items you might see on a campesino altar. Silver jewelry, silk shawls and a statue of the bullfighter might be found on an urban altar. Newly pressed clothes are placed on a chair below a wall mirror. Just as in life, each soul has a bit of vanity and wants to be admired during the fiesta.
The Aztec custom of using papel picado in religious rituals continues, curtains of paper banners, papel de chino picado, with cut-out designs of skeletons, flowers, birds and coffins are hung behind the altar. Purple banners represent mourning and hot pink or bright orange signify the joyful return to the land of the living. In many parts of Mexico, families spread a floral carpet on the ground leading to their home as additional insurance that the spirit will not get lost along the way. The objects on the ofrenda are meant to share the pleasures of life with the dead. Pulque, beer or tequila is served as a reminder of their good times on earth. A smoker will be treated with a favorite brand of cigarettes and Coca Cola is inevitable. The ofrenda is an offering and a visual expression of the gratitude, love and veneration the family feels for the visiting spirit.
In the Mexican tradition, no soul is left unacknowledged. On October 27th, the souls with no living relatives are welcomed back into the community by hanging bread and water on the doors. October 28th is the day of the Accidentados, those souls that died in accidents or through violence. October 30th, Los Niños Limbos, the souls of the children that died in childbirth before being baptized and are thus free of sin. An Aztec legend tells of a paradise where a tree of human breasts provides mothers’ mild for the Angelitos. They enter the earth at noon on their day and must depart by noon the following day. On November 1st, the church bells toll to announce the arrival of the elder traveling spirits, the Faithful Dead.
At sundown processions of families arrive at the cemeteries laden with an abundance of flowers, overflowing picnic baskets, musical instruments and even boom boxes for entertaining the souls during the night long vigil of communion. Gravestones are cleaned, fresh plants and flowers are placed in the newly turned soil, and grave markers are given a fresh coat of colorful paint. The graves are extravagantly decorated with flowers, bread, foods and fruits. Families reminisce with the departed, recounting events of the past year. Candles flicker and the scent of copal incense penetrates the air. The dead walk among the living, dancing to the music of live mariachis. Some families pray the Rosary or red the Bible aloud. The following day the fiesta continues in a more social atmosphere of gossip, picnics, drinking and music. The celebration ends on the evening of November 2, but the memories linger in the souls of the dead who can return to the afterlife, knowing that they have not been forgotten by those they love. Viva México!
Learn More about Day of the Dead
- Watch a video of Day of the Dead with altars and images from San Miguel de Allende
- Learn how to build your own Day of the Dead altar
- Read “Día de los Muertos: Transforming Ourselves Upward, and consider this as a time for inner reflection.
Dia de los Muertos in Mexico
Visit Oaxaca, Patzquaro or San Miguel de Allende to participate in traditional Dias de los Muertos celebrations. While you’re in San Miguel, stay at Casa Quetzal. Owner and artist Cynthia Price has a special Dia de los Muertos package for guests that include your very own altar-building kit and instructions for constructing an altar while you are in San Miguel. Visit the hotel now….
About the Author
Maria Teresa Valenzuela is an indigenous spiritual teacher and healer from an enduring lineage of shamanic healers and curanderos in the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua, Mexico. Taught the shamanic medicine way by her grandmother and father, she brings to her work a wealth of knowledge in Mesoamerican wisdom, myths, and traditional forms of indigenous medicine and healing. Drawing on her indigenous heritage, career as a registered nurse, life experiences, and traditional training as a “Mujer de la Medicina,” Maria Teresa serves as a unique bridge across traditions and cultures. She travels throughout the United States, Mexico, and Central America sharing her healing gifts and wisdom.
Maria Teresa conducts spiritual workshops, retreats and individual healing work using indigenous healing methods and visionary medicine plants.
Email Maria Teresa: laikaraiya@yahoo.com
Photo credits: Susie Blauser – www.sanmigueldeallendephotos.com
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