In Mexico early this month, the departed and people’s memories of them will be celebrated in one of the world’s most atmospheric festivals. by michael spencer
“There are cemeteries that are lonely, graves full of bones that do not make a sound, the heart moving through a tunnel, in it darkness, darkness, darkness.” – pablo neruda, ‘nothing but death’
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round this time each year, Mexico comes alive for an extraordinary national festival. In cemeteries throughout the country, revellers dressed as skeletons dance to raucous mariachi bands, the air is thick with clouds of copal incense, fireworks light the night skies and tequila flows in rivers. Mountains of cakes and pastries shaped like skulls and bones are devoured by families using tombstones for tables. Celebrations continue far into the night, with many a drunken participant falling comatose around the tombs, illuminated by thousands of candles and strewn with orange marigold petals. This astonishing, joyous carnival paradoxically celebrates not life, but death; this is El Día de
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los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, Mexican style. The Day of the Dead is actually a full week of celebrations that begins on October 28th and ends with a national holiday on November 2nd. Its ancient origins spring from both Aztec and Spanish traditions but today the festival resonates with Mexicans as a unique expression of their national identity. For many of them, the Day of the Dead is a way of coming to terms with the dark heart of their national psyche, scarred as it is by a violent history where death was a familiar figure strutting the roads of their land. In Mexico it’s a popular belief that during this festival the dead are permitted to briefly return from the netherworld to visit 289
friends and relatives on earth and partake again of the joys of life. To welcome the returning spirits, Mexicans visit the graves of families and friends to adorn them with colourful flowers and offerings of food, in particular sugary breads often shaped as skulls or coffins. It would be easy for an outsider to interpret the dancing skeletons, candy skulls and general drunken revelry as disrespect for the dead and a lack of grief at human loss, but nothing could be further from the truth. For Mexicans, the emphasis is on honouring and remembering the lives of the deceased rather than grieving for their passing. For some it could be a macabre spectacle, but for Mexican families it is a chance to fondly remember their dear departed with an exuberant celebration of life. Coping with mortality is a common human preoccupation, and the Day of the Dead provides a fascinating
insight into the Mexican way of dealing with it. Octavio Paz, the Mexican Nobel prizewinning writer, observed that his compatriots had no qualms about getting up close and personal with the Grim Reaper. In his most highly regarded work The Labyrinth of Solitude, Paz writes, “The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. True, there is as much fear in his attitude as anyone else, but at least death is not hidden away. He looks at it face to face, with impatience, disdain or irony.” Some critics say that the festival has become too commercial and is more about profit than anything to do with honouring the dead. Certainly, in some parts of Mexico City, the holiday has become a fullfledged tourist attraction and entrance fees to cemeteries have become the norm. For other observers the urban spectacle is an interesting phenomenon
It would be easy for an outsider to interpret the dancing skeletons, candy skulls and drunken revelry as disrespect for the dead, but nothing could be further from the truth.
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because it has become an important part of Mexico’s modern identity.
on television and in the media, perhaps desensitising the average Mexican to the proximity of death in their daily lives. In Mexico, death is typically exican academics believe portrayed as a skeletal femme fatale that the violent and who goes by various names. tumultuous nature of the Whether she’s called la Catrina country’s past – the brutality of (fancy lady), la Flaca (skinny), la the Spanish conquest and its Huesuda (bony) or la Pelona (baldy), decimation of the indigenous there’s no doubt she is the star of population, a humiliating the festival. subjugation in the war with the The elegantly dressed, but United States, and the bloodbath of the Mexican revolution – made skeletal, Catrina originated with the artist Jose Guadalupe it impossible for its people to Posada, who is considered to ignore the commonplace reality be the father of Mexican printof unnatural death in Mexico. making. Born in 1852, he was Even today, the dark underbelly of Mexico’s economic apprentice to a local print-maker when he was just 14. Moving to success is the orgy of crime Mexico City in 1888, he worked and violence unleashed by its as the chief artist for a publisher brutal drug cartels that supply of illustrated broadsheets, street the addicts of North America gazettes and other popular forms with cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Since 2006, the start of literature. He became famous for his calaveras – skeleton images of the government’s war on the – which he used as political and cartels, nearly 100,000 people social satire and to poke fun at have been murdered or simply human folly. disappeared. Gruesome images In the popular imagination of murder victims are daily fare
Catrina became not only the poster child for El Día de los Muertos but a symbol of Mexicans’ willingness to laugh at death itself. Posada depicted Catrina as a wealthy woman reminding people of the equalising force of death that strikes both rich and poor without favour. As a political satire, Catrina also represented an obituary for the wealthy elite under the regime of the 19th-century dictator Porfirio Diaz, who was finally toppled in the Mexican revolution of 1910. His work had a profound influence on Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and other great artists of the Mexican revolutionary generation who frequently depicted death in their works. Rivera himself once said: “If you
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among their gods and rituals; for at least 3,000 years these Mesoamerican civilisations celebrated the lives of their dead estivals for the dead are not ancestors. Mexican culture’s playful unique to Mexico. They familiarity and proximity exist in many cultures, notably Qingming Festival in China and to death is at odds with the European tradition of shying the Bon Festival in Japan, where away from and denying it at all graves are cleaned and offerings costs. Instead, it reflects more are left for ancestors. What the Aztec heritage that saw death makes the Mexican celebration as part of the broader cycle of exceptional is the joyous atmosphere that reigns, making it existence and not as an end in resemble more of a carnival than itself. The Aztecs considered it a blessing to die in childbirth, a period of mourning. battle or as a human sacrifice, The origins of this peculiarly believing the victim would be Mexican take on the Day of rewarded with a more desirable the Dead can be traced back to destination in the afterlife. Skulls the traditions and beliefs of its indigenous peoples, in particular were often kept as trophies and the Aztecs, Mayans and Mexicas. displayed during the festivals Miccailhuitontli, held in Death held a significant place look around my studio, you will see Deaths everywhere, Deaths of every size and colour.”
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honour of dead children, and Miccailhuitl, which remembered the adult dead. Presiding over the celebrations was the original Aztec Catrina, the goddess of death, Mictecacihuatl. Before the Spanish conquest, these festivals were held in the ninth month of the Aztec Solar Calendar, which falls in August. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Central America in the 15th century they attempted to convert the indigenous peoples to Catholicism. The success of their spiritual conquest in Mexico was in part due to their willingness to incorporate certain pre-Columbian customs into Christian practices. They changed the date of the Aztec festivals for the dead to make them coincide with the Catholic
All Saints’ and All Souls’ days that are held at the beginning of November. While contemporary observance of the Day of the Dead includes masses and prayers to saints and the dead, it is dominated by carnivalesque rituals that mostly reflect Aztec customs. It is still common today, for example, to put a clay dog on the altar – a reference to the pre-conquest tradition of killing a dog and incinerating it with the body of the deceased, to help it on its way to the underworld. The souls of children are believed to return on November 1st, with adult spirits following on November 2nd. Plans for the festival are made throughout the year, and goods gathered that
photographs of the departed, candy skulls inscribed with the name of the deceased, and a selection of his or her favourite foods and beverages. The perfume of burning copal incense and the light of numerous candles are provided to help the departed find their way. It is believed that the spirits of the dead consume the spiritual essence of the food, so although the celebrants later eat it they believe the food has lost its nutritional value. Pillows and blankets are left out so the deceased can rest after his or her long journey home. Meanwhile, at the family burial plot in the local cemetery, relatives spruce up the grave sites. In rural villages this may entail cutting down
weeds that have sprouted up during the rainy season, as well as giving tombs a fresh coat of paint after making any necessary structural repairs. The graves are then decorated according to local custom, which differs from region to region. The tomb may be simply adorned by a cross formed of marigold petals or elaborately embellished with colourful wreaths and fresh or artificial floral arrangements. The graves of dead children, known as los angelitos, or little angels, are festooned with brightly coloured paper streamers, sweets and toys. In many places, people have picnics at the grave site and even hire mariachi bands to lead a heartfelt sing-along. Some people believe that 293
The emphasis is on honouring and remembering the lives of the deceased rather than grieving for their passing.
will be offered to the dead. From mid-October through the first week of November, markets and shops all over Mexico are stocked with special accoutrements for the Day of the Dead, including all manner of skeletons and other macabre toys, such as intricate tissue paper cut-outs called papel picado, elaborate wreaths and crosses decorated with paper or silk flowers, candles and votive lights, and
masses of fresh seasonal flowers, particularly marigolds. Among the edible treats used as offerings for the dead are skulls and coffins made from sugar, chocolate or amaranth seeds and specially baked sweet bread rolls called pan de muerto that come in various sizes, topped with bits of dough that are shaped like bones. The skull is a common theme, with celebrants wearing death’s head masks called calacas. Sugar skulls, inscribed with the names of the deceased on the forehead, are often eaten by a relative or friend. Family members use their purchases to decorate an altar in honour of deceased relatives. In setting up the altar, a designated area of the home is cleared of its normal furnishings. The altar itself is often no more than a table and several overturned wooden crates placed in tiers and covered with clean linens. The offerings are then laid out, decorating the altar with paper cut-outs, candles, flowers,
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possessing Day of the Dead items and symbols can bring good luck. Death-themed tattoos are common as is carrying dolls of the dead. Those with a talent for writing sometimes create short poems, called calaveras, which are lighthearted epitaphs for friends, describing their interesting habits and attitudes, or funny anecdotes about them. Children throughout Mexico have long used the Day of the Dead to ask for sweets or pocket change from adult passersby in the street. In some parts of the country, especially the cities, children in costumes roam the streets, knocking on people’s doors asking for a calaverita, a small gift of candies or money, mimicking Halloween’s trick-or-treating custom. 294 010
In modern Mexico it is usual to see altars in schools, offices and government buildings, as the holiday is now seen as an important part of the national heritage. Day of the Dead rituals are repeated in cities and villages throughout Mexico. exico’s Day of the Dead has has become a tourist phenomenon with guidebooks making special mention of the festival as one of the cultural highlights of a visit to the country. Among the most famous and most accessible festivals are the celebrated all-night candlelight vigils in cemeteries at Mixquic near Mexico City and Janitzio Island in Michoacán state in the southwest of the country.
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Mixquic, once an Aztec farming island, is now a district of Mexico City and has retained something of a rural village ambiance. The area takes on a busy and festive air in the final days of October as merchants set up street stands to hawk their wares. In the cemeteries at Mixquic, all family burial plots are elaborately embellished with an array of earthly delights in the hope of luring back the departed spirits. In the afternoon relatives gather at each tomb to mourn the loss of loved ones with la llorada, or weeping. In the evening, when darkness would normally envelop the graveyard, the glow of thousands of votive candles illuminates the way for the departed. At midnight the return of the dead to the underworld is accompanied by the mournful tolling of bells and recitations of the Catholic rosary prayer. Festivities in villages throughout the state of Michoacan, southwest of Mexico City, have a distinctive flavour that reflects the traditions of the local Purepecha Indians. As in other parts of Mexico, floral tributes, food offerings and candlelight vigils in each local cemetery are integral to the celebrations. Among the Purepechas, however, these activities are performed only by women and children while the male population performs ancient pre-Christian rituals celebrating the fall harvest. Throngs of visitors trek to Janitzio Island in Lake Pátzcuaro every year to witness the spectacular mass graveyard vigil there, but equally colourful celebrations may be observed more serenely in most other Michoacan villages.
The origins of this peculiarly Mexican take on the Day of the Dead can be traced back to the traditions and beliefs of its indigenous peoples, in particular the Aztecs, Mayans and Mexicas.
The Mexican Day of the Dead is not only an occasion to experience a colourful and folkloric festival but a chance to ponder our own notions about, and reaction to the inevitability, of death. Perhaps the Mexican attitude of confronting it with a fun-filled carnival that celebrates the joys of life has something to recommend it after all.