My Grandparents-in-laws’ grave, 2 November 2004 |
El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) was a holiday that I didn’t really understand until I married into Mexican Culture. It’s like our Memorial Day, but it’s what I’ve always wanted Memorial to be that it wasn’t. First of all, it’s only about dead people, it’s not a patriotic holiday at all, and also, it’s at the “dying” time of the year (Fall in America and, coincidentally in Mexico it’s during the dry season, when everything is brown and dry and dormant.) Lastly, I love that the Day of the Dead is festive and celebratory, that’s how death ought to be!
In Mexican Culture, the Day of the Dead is a day for remembering those who have passed on. Graves are decorated with flowers, altars with photos of the deceased are put up in homes with plates of their favorite foods so that when their spirits come by to visit, they’ll get to have a little bit something tasty. I think there’s a little superstition there, too, that if you don’t leave food for them, the spirits of those who have passed on will become angry. Like Santa Claus without his cookies.
That the Day of the Dead is celebrated in the Fall/Dry Season is a hearkening back to a time when holidays had to do with life as it’s actually lived. Like the pagan celebrations that coincide with and participate in the cycles of the year, the Day of the Dead is a celebration of death at a time of the year when hope and meaning is needed to keep the pueblo going until the fertile rainy season returns. As I discussed in my earlier post, Fall and Spring: Paying Attention to the Between Times, it’s also a between time, a time of change, just as death is.
The best part about this Mexican cultural holiday is the spirit of celebration and happiness that surrounds it. In Mexican culture, there’s no sacred morbidity about visiting the graves of loved ones who have passed on. When I was down in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, and we went to the graveyard, like everyone else in town, I was immediately amazed at the people selling tacos at the entrance. The graves were all decorated to the nines with flowers and wreaths, people were sitting on top of tombs eating tacos. Some people stayed in their family groups and others milled about chatting and comparing the decorations on this tomb with the decorations on that one. And no-one thought twice about me taking photograph after photograph of the graves of their ancestors, fathers, mothers and children. (Incidentally, the day before el Dia de los Muertos is el Dia de los Angeles, the Day of Angels…All Saints Day. It’s the day to commemorate anyone who died before they were married, because if they haven’t had sex, then they automatically become angels and saints. It’s like a consolation prize, I guess.) As with everything in Mexican culture, color is everywhere. Death has a special place in the lives of Mexicans, it’s not something to fear, it’s something to embrace as inevitable, the great equalizer. It makes everything that happens to us in life bearable or unimportant, and all-too-precious at the same time. You’d better live your life while you can, because it could be gone any minute! So Feliz Dia de los Muertos to you all, today is the day!!
The curtains in my kitchen. |
Marie Young (Young Creative) says
Nice post! I've been seeing a lot of artists working on things related to the Day of the Dead. It is fascinating on so many levels. I do wish my family could approach death this way. But being "staunch" Germans, we hide our feelings, joyful or sad, far from view.
Meredith says
I’ve always loved the idea of the Day of the Dead celebration, and the way Mexican culture embraces death as an important part of the life cycle – none of this “sacred morbidity,” as you pointed out. I wish American culture could be more like this. Perhaps then people could make peace with death, and understand that it is part of the life cycle, not something to be feared and ignored and rallied against.
jennyhoo says
Here, here!! 😀 Thanks for stopping by Meredith!