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Day of the Dead in Mexico – Dia de los Muertos (photo)

Mexicans believe that the dead continue to live in the afterlife – Mictlan, and death is just a transition from one life to another. And a year after death, the deceased return to their homes to feel the joy of life, to see relatives and friends, to get what they loved.

In major cities, Dia de los Muertos is prepared months in advance. Schools, institutes and local communities are starting to make masks and costumes, life-size puppets. Musicians rehearse daily. Altar designs are drawn, truckloads of freshly cut flowers are ordered.

Altar and offerings

The yellow marigold altar is a symbolic door between the worlds, which is supposed to help souls to go home. The flower itself is often called the flower of the dead – flor del muerto. An altar should be in every home. In recent years, they have even been installed in squares, schools, shops and restaurants, hospitals, hotels and airports.

Gifts are placed at the altar: flowers, candles, tamales (corn meal), fruit, toys for children, alcohol for adults. Mandatory attributes are water, as the spirits are thirsty after the journey, and a special sweet bread of the dead (pan de muertos).

All day long the women cook the food that the dead loved the most. Beds are being made in the houses on which the dead could rest. Friends and relatives gather together for a joyful meeting with the deceased.

Skulls, skeletons and more

On the eve of the Feast of the Dead, store shelves are filled with miniature skulls, skeletons and coffins made of chocolate, clay or cardboard. On the windows they often stand in pyramids, vaguely reminiscent of the Aztec tzompantli – walls made of the skulls of the vanquished, as a symbol of the inseparable pair of death and life.

Skulls and skeletons are everywhere: in windows, doors, on the streets, painted on clothes, walls and pavement. Often they are smiling, made in bright cheerful colors. They can even give you a skull or a coffin with your name on it, don’t be surprised – it’s from the bottom of your heart. They are usually given as gifts to relatives and friends. And children in general can feast on such lollipops in the form of skulls.

Calavera Katrina

A skeleton dressed in rich women’s clothing with a wide-brimmed hat, also one of the unchanging symbols of the Day of the Dead. Some believe that this is how the goddess Mictlancihuatl should look now. But in fact, this symbol came from an engraving by the artist José Guadalupe Posada – La Calavera de la Catrina (1913 years). The artist sought to show that the rich and successful are also subject to death. But one way or another, over time, the image of Katrina firmly entered the attributes of the Day of the Dead.

A visit to the cemetery is the climax of the holiday

Parking lots near the cemetery are busy for kilometers around, and people flock to it in a dense stream.

The graves are being put in order. They are strewn with petals, wreaths and bouquets of yellow marigolds, decorated with candles, they bring the favorite food and drinks of the deceased, his photographs. There is also a picnic and dancing to mariachi music.

A night trip to the cemetery is not a sad event, but a long-awaited meeting with relatives, an opportunity to spend time with them, and at the same time have fun, eat well and drink with relatives and friends. Near each grave is a family idyll. Men talk, women fuss around snacks, older relatives tell funny stories from the life of the deceased, dressed up children play, and babies sleep in their parents’ arms.

Parade of the Dead

And yet, the tradition of sincere night gatherings at the cemetery is rather typical of residents of small towns and villages. But in large policies, they are increasingly organizing a real carnival.

In Oaxaca de Juarez, Dia de los Muertos is celebrated on a grand scale. This is a city of dancing skeletons, colorful skulls, brass bands and mariachis.

Deserted during the day, the city is suddenly filled with wandering orchestras closer to night. Classical and folk instruments create an incredible musical mix of motifs that will raise the dead from the grave, and make the living dance all night long.

Long processions of mummers and just onlookers gather behind the orchestras – this is the so-called comparsa. Surprisingly, such a procession occurs spontaneously and has neither a clear route nor a schedule. You can join the dancing crowd at any time and in a musical frenzy cut circles around the city.

Carnival is everywhere. But the mind-clearing madness will be gone at first light on November 3rd, until next year.

Regional Differences

Nowadays, Day of the Dead celebrations in some parts of Mexico outshine Christmas. But traditions often vary from region to region. We will only briefly mention them.

Oaxaca de Juarez prefers carnival processions.

In the Valley of Mexico, decoration of altars and houses of the dead dominates.

In the city of Pomuch, traditions more typical of pre-Columbian culture are still observed. Here, every year, the remains of their loved ones are exhumed and cleansed of the flesh, and in subsequent years they are wiped. The following video is not for the faint of heart.

In the Tlahuac region of Mexico, rural folk traditions have been preserved. It is here that you can see one of the most brightly decorated cemeteries.

Ocotepeque hosts a huge number of sacrifices. And from the houses where people died over the past year, a road covered with flowers leads to the cemetery.

Halloween and Day of the Dead

Both of these holidays are held almost at the same time, and at first glance they have a lot of similarities. Both Halloween and the Day of the Dead originated from early cultures and later mixed with Christianity. Also, both are based on the belief that these days the dead return to the world of the living. The paraphernalia with the symbols of death is very similar. But that’s where the similarities end.

Halloween is more of a fear of death. The holiday is replete with negative characters: demons, witches, vampires, zombies and so on. Masks are put on so that evil spirits take the living for their own and do not harm them.

And the Day of the Dead is rather love for loved ones, the joy of meeting with the dead, their veneration. In Dia de los Muertos, death is something to be celebrated, not feared.

Tags:#southern America#Holidays

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Dia de los Muertos — Day of the Dead in Mexico 11/31/2018 – 11/02/2018

10/22/2018

Halloween is celebrated all over the world in Mexico At first glance, the events are similar – both contain attributes of death, but there is a fundamental difference: the Day of the Dead is a bright holiday of meeting with deceased relatives.
This tradition is very ancient: the Aztecs and Mayans believed in the afterlife of Miktlan, and they considered birth and death to be a transition from one world to another, that is, every event was a holiday, because no one disappeared anywhere. Moreover, it was possible to come to visit from Mictlan, but only during the month, which fell approximately in August. Then the locals were fond of sacrifices and other asocial rites, they kept the skulls of relatives at home, using them for rituals. Under the influence of the colonialists, the morals of the natives softened, and the dates of the holiday were combined with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
Every year, the Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1 and 2, but the festivities begin the night before. The first day they honor the dead children, this is the “Day of the Angels”; the second – the “older” dead. And this is not a mournful commemoration, but a real merry holiday, the main events of which take place at night. Participants dress up as monsters or skeletons, paint their faces and march through the streets with torches, songs and dances towards the cemeteries. There are no schedules, no routes, everyone joins them and have fun as much as they want. Funny stories are remembered in cemeteries, they drink and eat.
A key object of the Day of the Dead are altars, believed to be portals through which the wishing dead can visit the real world. Each family builds its own altar in honor of the deceased relative. Gifts, treats that the deceased loved, always a bottle of water are laid on it, since after a long journey from the other world, thirst is inevitable. Sugar shards are specially prepared, on the forehead of which the names of the deceased are written. The altar is decorated with flowers, most often orange marigolds: it is believed that they attract the souls of the dead. This design is left at home or taken to the grave – there is no fundamental difference, because the deceased will still visit the house. To help him find his way, candles are placed and lit from the cemetery to the house. The grave itself is also decorated, because you still have to return.
The calavera is considered the symbol of the Day of the Dead – this is the name given to all kinds of images of the skull: from sugar, clay, plastic, painted, and even poems of a given theme. A popular “variation on a theme” is Katrina, or rather her skull. At 1913 AD José Guadalupe Posad created a zinc engraving Calavera de la Catrina depicting a skeleton in a smart dress and wide-brimmed hat as a symbol of death, regardless of wealth. She was extremely popular, especially in conjunction with the Day of the Dead, she was even considered an image of the goddess of the dead. Figurines of Katrina remain an integral attribute of the holiday and an excellent souvenir.
The Day of the Dead is celebrated throughout the country, so you can take part in the holiday in almost any locality, even in villages. Spectacular noisy carnivals are held in big cities, sincere cemetery gatherings are held in small ones. It will be difficult to move everywhere by car due to constant processions, blocked traffic and clogged parking lots, especially near cemeteries.