The celebrations last more or less from October 28th to November 2nd and are dominated by brightly colored sugar skulls, flowers called Chempasuchil, themed decorated loaves, altars full of symbolic elements, parades of amusing skeletons. It is impossible not to be overwhelmed by this explosion of colors and sounds: between music, scents of sweet bread and traditional songs, the whole of Mexico is transformed into a great homage to life.
Nothing to do with the macabre tones of Halloween, a holiday that chases away the dead through scary disguises, nor with the darker and more intimate atmospheres of our commemoration. In Mexico the days of the dead are lively and colorful because death is experienced as something inevitable and the deceased, rather than causing fear, bring joy. In other words, while in the West we fear death and exorcise it, in Mexico we literally invite it to party.
What are the origins of the festival
The roots of this celebration go back much further than you might think, to a time when life and death were part of the same natural cycle.
But where does this celebration so loved by Mexicans come from? Apparently, despite being celebrated in the same period of the year, its origins are older than the Christian commemoration of the dead, despite the fact that today Catholicism is the most widespread religion in the country.
However, Dia de Muertos is influenced by pre-Hispanic influences, with elements borrowed from the Aztec and Mayan peoples, who worshiped the life of their ancestors, believing that the cosmic order was based on a continuous alternation of death and life.
Furthermore, they did not believe in the concept of hell and paradise depending on one’s behavior during earthly existence, but believed that souls could take different paths depending on the type of passing. For example, those who died in battle or during childbirth were considered particularly honored, while those who drowned found peace in the realm of water, accompanied by the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue.
When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, the pre-Hispanic rites merged with those of the colonizers, giving rise to a syncretism that mixed the various traditions, and so it was that the day of commemoration of the deceased was made to coincide with the Mesoamerican holiday, giving life to the Dia de los Muertos. Proof that cultures have always mixed! It is precisely this meeting between worlds – indigenous and Catholic, ancient and modern – that makes Dia de los Muertos a unique celebration of its kind, capable of uniting faith and folklore in a universal embrace.
How to celebrate
To remember and pay homage to their ancestors, who can only reach the world of the living at this time of year, Mexicans sprinkle the tombstones with decorations and flowers, and create colorful altars, the “altar of the dead“.
Inevitable are the photos of the deceased, without which they cannot reach the land of the living. They follow their favorite dishes, the “Pan de muertos“, sprinkled with sugar and similar to the bones of a skull, and again candles, flowers, “calaveras“, or sugar skulls given as good luck charms, “picado paper“, rectangles of paper cut out in various colours, a glass of water to quench the thirst of the deceased, and salt, a symbol of protection. Each element has a precise meaning, and seeing them all together creates a hypnotic spectacle: bright colours, flickering lights and scents that fill the air with an atmosphere suspended between the sacred and the festive.
Another characteristic element of Dia de Muertos is the so-called Catrinaa female skeleton originally created by the illustrator Josè Guadalupe Posada, dressed in an early 20th century style hat. Today the Catrina has become a national symbol, reinterpreted in parades, works of art and even tattoos: it represents the ability of the Mexican people to laugh at death without disrespecting it.
Speaking of flowers, those used are the Chempasùchil originating from Mexico, predominantly yellow and orange in color, with a particularly intense scent. The choice is not random: according to legend, the smell of the Chempasùchil is perceived by the souls who, following their trail, manage to return home for the occasion. Which is why their petals are scattered everywhere, especially in cemeteries. It is as if for one night the air of Mexico was filled with the scent of memories, and each petal became a small luminous signal for the traveling souls.
Each day is dedicated to different deceased: October 28th to those who died due to accident or violent causes, October 29th to those who died due to drowning, October 30th to lonely or forgotten souls, October 31st to those who were never born or died before baptism, November 1st to dead children, November 1st and 2nd to the return of the deceased to earth.
During the celebrations, children, young people and adults wear colorful skeleton disguises, dance and parade celebrating life, of which death is a joyful passage that should not be feared but accepted. There are even those who camp in the cemetery to spend the night next to their dead, those who prepare surreal picnics, those who accompany the celebrations with music. All this is not just tradition, but a way to remember that death does not interrupt bonds, it transforms them. Ultimately, what really dies is only what we forget.
This is why, unlike Halloween which with its scary disguises conveys a feeling of fear towards death, here the atmosphere is much more fun and colourful: passing away is something natural to be welcomed with joy.
A festival so special that it has become a World Heritage Site, considered by UNESCO to be one of the oldest cultural expressions which, by celebrating ancestors, affirms the identity of a people and its indigenous origins, showing death from a decidedly unusual and curious point of view, to which we are certainly not accustomed. Today Dia de los Muertos is much more than a religious occasion: it is a living heritage that tells the story, resilience and joy of an entire people.
