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| NOVEMBER 2005 |
Day of the Dead
Treats for the deceased
As you wander through the streets of Oaxaca you’ll be overwhelmed by the cempazuchitl, yellow and reddish marigolds, being sold on the side walks. You’ll see people gathering around the numerous market stands asking for apples, bananas, guayabas, copal, candles and candies: the Oaxaqueños are preparing themselves for the Day of the Dead, the most important festival in Mexico. On November first and second the Mexicans honor their deceased loved ones by turning the graveyards into colorful and joyful places and making altars in their homes. This tradition dates back to pre- Columbian times. The Tarascan- people, who flourished from 1100 to 1520 A.D. and had its political and cultural center in Patzcuaro, Michoacán, believed that the dead could return to their homes one day a year to visit their loved ones. With the invasion of Hernán Cortés and his men in 1519, the celebration changed and today it is a combination of European Catholicism and indigenous beliefs about the afterlife
Whereas death in Western society is shrouded in sadness with black as the dominating color, in Mexico it is a feast of colors, music, drinks and food. Honoring the spirits is their way of communicating with their deceased loved ones. People adorn the graves and altars found in their homes with great dedication and care.
In all the different pre-Hispanic agricultural societies, the common cosmic vision was that after you die, your spirit transcends to an afterlife. This was considered an active state where the dead played the role of mediators between the living and the deities that represented and ruled over the powers of nature. They began to worship those transcending time by burying the people with special objects having magical meanings to invoke the fertility of the land. The archaeological evidence is abundant. Numerous female clay figures were found together with offerings of food in excavated gravesides.
The meaning and function of gravesites was transforming from an informal burial setting to a highly formal and worshipped cemetery. The idea of a world “without a backdoor” slowly disappeared and was gradually substituted by giving death a transcendental sense, allowing the Mesoamerican societies to create the homage to the dead.
There were two days of remembrance to the dead in the agricultural solar calendar of the Mesoamerican people inhabiting what is now Mexico. The months in this period counted 22 days. The first celebration was in the ninth “month”, Tlaxochimaco (which translates as beautifully as when the Flowers Bloom) and the festival was called Miccailhuitontili (The Small Celebration of the Dead). On this date they remembered the common dead, although other historians say it was to honor the children that had died. The second celebration was for the Big Celebration of the Dead and took place in the tenth “month”, Xocotl huctzi (When the Fruit Falls). In our calendar the ninth and tenth months coincide with August and September. The celebration of Tlaxochimaco could barely be compared to the festivities of Xocotl huctzi.
Chronicler Diego Duran writes that the Aztec celebrations took place day and night, in- and outside the temples and that people dyed their bodies black and smeared their faces with soot.
During the Spanish Conquisition and the evangelical mission of the Catholic Church, the first thing they tried to destroy were the pre- Hispanic beliefs, along with native concepts of the world and life, including death. In both the Aztec as the Christian cultures, however, the idea of hell, purgatory and heaven existed. Clearly they couldn’t completely destroy an ancient culture, so the Catholic Church encouraged syncretism, or blending Christian beliefs with the predominant customs of the land they were conquering. The Catholic celebrations of All Saints Day and All Souls Day (November 1st and 2nd) were easily superimposed on the Tarascan’s “Day of the Dead” traditions. Up until today you can see Christian symbols such as crucifixes, saints and candles placed alongside indigenous symbols as flowers and tobacco offerings.
The home shrine or altar is formed of an arco, a wooden stick trellis made of cane, that symbolizes a door to and from the underworld. The arco is completely covered with cempazuchitl and adorned with fruits such as oranges, apples and bananas, which serve as a homage to the sun, planets and moons. Among this universe float the pan de muertos. This bread of the dead is prepared by mothers and daughters on the 30th of October and comes in various fanciful human and animal shapes. Sugar skulls and other candies are the last and most prominent features hung on the arcos. The food placed on the altar will be eaten by the living, but it is believed that the spirits of the dead consume the vapors of the offered food. On many altars you’ll find the typical Mexican delights including tamales, corn, plates of beans, enchiladas, tacos and tortillas, candies and chocolate. Coca Cola, beer and tequila or mezcal are the most common drinks and for the deceased smokers cigarettes are placed, often in the hands of a skeleton. The copal is used to drive away evil spirits and the candle flames serve to heat the cold hands and bodies of the spirits. The altar usually consists of four layers, each representing one of the four elements earth, water, air and fire.
Popular spots are the Xoxo- cemetery of Xoxocotl or the Panteón
General in the Jalatlaco neighborhood. The legend has it that once there
was a taxi driver who picked up a young girl at the Panteón and
took her to the address she gave him. Upon arrival at the house, the girl
told the man she had no money, but she promised to pay him the next day.
She asked him to come to the house and ask for her mother. Being in a
philanthropic mood the taxi driver finally agreed to come back the next
day to collect his money. When he rang the door of the house where he’d
left the girl the day before and asked for the mother of the girl. The
woman said the girl he mentioned didn’t live there. “Where
did you pick her up, Sir?”, she asked him. “At the Panteón
General”, and she decided to let him in. She showed him some pictures
of her children and asked the man if it was one of those girls he had
in his taxi. He recognized one of them. “That is my youngest daughter.
She died six years ago”.
The spirits can always find us…
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