Tag: day of the dead

Mictecacihuatl: Lady of the Death, Aztec Goddess of Underworld
November 5, 2023
Mexican Marigold (Tagetes erecta): The Flower of the Dead
November 4, 2023
Does Spain Celebrate the Day of the Dead? They Don’t
Due to its strong associations with Mexican culture, the Day of the Dead is not generally observed in Spain. The celebration has its roots in pre-Columbian Mexico, namely the Aztecs, who observed a whole month in honor of the deceased. Skeletons sing and dance as flowers, fruit, and sweets adorn ofrenda altars on this celebration that embraces death as a part of life. Instead of the Day of the Dead, Spain celebrates Dia de Todos los Santos, or All Saints’ Day, on November 1, which is a Catholic feast day.
-> See also: Why Are Owls Associated with Halloween?
Reasons Why Spain Does Not Celebrate the Day of the Dead
The Day of the Dead has great significance in Spanish-speaking Mexico and other Central American countries, but it is not a festival that is observed in Spain. Several of the following explain why:
- Roots in Culture: The Day of the Dead has its origins in ancient Mesoamerican traditions, primarily among the Aztecs and other indigenous peoples of what is now Mexico. As a result of its deep-rooted history, Spain has developed its own set of customs and holidays that are distinctive to the country.
- Celebrations of Faith: Spain’s rich Catholic background is reflected in the fact that many of the country’s recognized festivals have a religious focus. Maundy (“Holy”) Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Corpus Christi, the Feast of Saint James (July 25), and All Saints’ Day (November 1) are all examples of some Christian holidays observed in Spain.
- Different Rituals: Spain has its own rituals for commemorating the departed. On November 1st, the Spanish observe All Saints’ Day (Dia de Todos los Santos) by paying their respects at the graves of their ancestors and friends.
- Disconnection: the Day of the Dead celebration did not emerge until well after the Spanish occupation of Mexico. As such, it cannot be traced back to any part of Spanish history or religion.
What is the Day of the Dead?
The roots of the Day of the Dead stretch back approximately 3,000 years. It is an ancestral Mesoamerican funeral rite of many other Latin-American festivals today. During the Day of the Dead, people in Mexico and other Central American countries pay their respects to the dead by visiting cemeteries and preparing ofrendas, or altars, as sacrifices for the departed spirits.
Day of the Dead festivities developed 1,000 years after the Aztecs began using skulls to commemorate the dead. A prominent emblem in the yearly festival to respect and converse with the departed is a skull, just like those originally put atop Aztec temples. This Aztec practice has persisted for almost another 600 years.
Even if the dead don’t eat the candy skulls, sugar skeletons, and delicious pan de muerto (bread of the dead), there are plenty of others who will be pleased to do so. Cempasuchil, or yellow marigolds, are another typical ornament of this celebration.
The date of the celebration was altered from the end of July to the beginning of August on the Aztec calendar so that it would fall on All Hallows’ Eve, or Dia de Todos Santos. Therefore, the first two days of November are dedicated to commemorating the Day of the Dead.
Spanish Traditions That Are Similar to the Day of the Dead
No Spanish customs are carbon copies of the Day of the Dead but there are parallels to be found.
-> All Saints Day: On November 1st, Spaniards observe All Saints Day, a holiday that is far more solemn and devout than the secular Day of the Dead. On this day of remembrance, many people pay a visit to cemeteries.
-> Altars: The Day of the Dead and Spanish customs both make use of altars. Some Spanish homes have built-in shrines to remember loved ones who have passed away, Mexican homes create ofrendas, or offerings, for the departed.
-> Flowers: The Spanish and Day of the Dead cultures both value flowers greatly. In Mexico, homes are decorated with yellow marigolds (or cempasuchil), while in Spain, flowers are brought to the graves of the departed.
-> Food: The Day of the Dead and Spanish culture both place an emphasis on food. In Mexico, relatives put delicacies of their dead on the ofrendas, whereas in Spain, families bring food to the graves of their departed ones.
Countries That Celebrate the Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead Festival in Mixquic, Mexico. (Jordi Cueto-Felgueroso Arocha, cc by sa 4.0, cropped)
This celebration has spread over the globe, particularly to places with sizable Latino populations. How it’s celebrated in those countries is as follows:
The United States: The United States celebrates the Day of the Dead in regions with sizable Mexican-Americans. Parades, fairs, and other activities are held just like in other countries. Many Americans who are not of Latin heritage also celebrate the holiday due to its incorporation into popular culture.
Mexico: The Day of the Dead is deeply embedded in Mexican and Chicano culture. In Mexico, families celebrate the return of their ancestors’ spirits with a meal, drinks, and a short reunion. Each year, the holiday lasts from November 1 to November 2. It is a national holiday and has been named Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. The day is marked with music, dancing, and parades.
El Salvador: During the first week of November, El Salvadorians celebrate La Calabiuza, their version of the Day of the Dead. Similar to Mexico’s customs, many inhabitants dress up as skeletons and dance around the city, some even carrying torches.
Guatemala: In this country, the Day of the Dead is commemorated with the Kite Festival, during which people release kites bearing tributes to the departed. It is called the Barriletes Gigantes Festival and takes place on November 1st. Literally, this means the Festival of Huge Kites.
Ecuador: On November 1st and 2nd, Ecuadorians commemorate El Dia de los Difuntos, or Day of the Deceased, with festive gatherings, meals with loved ones, and sweets with unusual shapes, like the guaguas de pan pastry, which is fashioned like a baby.
Haiti: Bringing together elements of both African Voodoo and Catholic customs, the Day of the Dead is commemorated in Haiti with a festival known as Fêt Gédé. Visits to cemeteries, building ofrendas, and adorning altars with candles, flowers, and other gifts take place on the first two days of November.
Philippines: Undás (All Saints’ Day or All Souls’ Day) is the Philippine equivalent of the Day of the Dead. The focus of their ceremonies is family and the memory of their relatives, and they include parades and feasts.
Peru: The graves of departed loved ones are honored with musical performances and floral offerings at Peruvian funerals.
Bolivia: After the festivities associated with All Saints Day in early November, the people of La Paz, Bolivia, observe Dia de las Ñatitas (or “Day of the Skulls”). On November 9th, the decorated and dressed skulls of deceased people are displayed in homes as a form of protection and vigilance. They also make sacrifices to the skulls, including cigarettes, coca leaves, wine, and other stuff.
History of the Day of the Dead
Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is a Mexican celebration with origins in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican traditions around 1000 BC. The celebration combines elements of Spanish tradition, Christian theology, and Mesoamerican ceremony. Celebrations commemorating the deceased on this day have their roots in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures.
Death was seen as a natural and necessary part of the cycle of life by the Nahua people, including the Aztecs, who formerly inhabited what is now central Mexico. People who died were thought to visit Chicunauhmictlan, or the Land of the Dead. It took the soul many years and nine more difficult levels to reach Mictlan, the last resting place.
During Nahua ceremonies performed in August to honor the dead, loved ones would bring offerings of food, drink, and tools to help the departed on their journey. This sparked the modern custom of placing food and other gifts on graves or on improvised altars called ofrendas in honor of the dead on the Day of the Dead.
Following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century, Catholic and Christian tenets were gradually infused into the Indigenous people’s funeral rites. The dates of the holiday are always the 31st of October to the 2nd of November. At midnight on October 31, the gates of heaven are said to be opened so that the souls of children might spend a day with their loved ones again. On November 2nd, ancestors of adults may do the same.
Different nations and faiths today observe the Day of the Dead in their own unique ways, reflecting the holiday’s development throughout time. It was created and has the largest following in Mexico, but individuals of Mexican descent celebrate it all over the world. Despite its Mexican roots, this practice has gained widespread acceptance.
November 1, 2023
Day of the Dead: When Alive and Dead Are Brought Together
Catholics commemorate the Day of the Dead on November 2, a day that is not to be confused with Halloween or All Saints’ Day. Under a usually dismal sky that heralds the start of winter, the living crowd the windswept lanes of cemeteries, and chrysanthemums decorate the graves. Even though every faith has its own perspective on the afterlife, Christianity’s emphasis on the immortality of the soul and the fellowship of saints was a profound spiritual breakthrough for its time. This holiday provides a perfect time to reflect on these key tenets of Christian belief and the origins of this office of the dead, which dates back to the High Middle Ages.
The Principle of the Communion of Saints
The two events, celebrated on November 1 and 2, respectively, are connected by the Feast of All Saints. As a return to the notion of intercession within the framework of the communion of saints, the Feast of All Saints commemorates all the Christian saints, both known and unknown to the Church, and sets them up as an example for all the faithful.
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The Church celebrates the broad concept of the communion of saints on the Day of the Dead. All Christians, both alive and dead, are brought together in the communion of saints, a great community of solidarity that transcends place and time.
Catholics believe that the departed who have entered God’s kingdom (such as the saints commemorated the day before) may intercede on behalf of the living. However, the other way that Catholic solidarity might flow is from the living to the dead.
Danse Macabre or Dance of Death by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1538.
Some of the dead have to go through a mysterious purification process called purgatory before they may reach God’s kingdom. A lot of people, particularly in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, had some very wild ideas about what happens in Purgatory. Some shady popes even sold “indulgences” to those hoping to reduce their own or a loved one’s time spent in purgatory. The monk Martin Luther, frustrated at being ignored, blamed this anomaly for the Church split that eventually gave rise to Protestantism.
These days, purgatory is seen more as a process of cleansing during which the prayers of the living might aid the souls of the recently departed. There is a tight connection between the concept of the communion of saints and the vision of the Church as the body of Christ made up of the baptized of all times.
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Therefore, the Day of the Dead is not a macabre celebration; rather, it serves as a reminder of the continuation of the people of the baptized beyond death, the preservation of unity, and the strengthening of connections of solidarity between those who are born on Earth and those who are born in Heaven.
The Origins of the Day
Christians have always prayed for the deceased because of their faith in the soul’s immortality, but special days were set aside to do so. It is very debatable whether or not Christians really “Christianized” ancient pagan celebrations like Samhain (Halloween). There is no denying that the Day of the Dead evolved from earlier commemorations of the dead.
Even more so, this universal inquiry and this fatality, which is death, are commemorated in at least one holiday across the board, across cultures, and across faiths. But for some people, especially in Roman culture, these festivals had a more sinister purpose: to ward off the spirits of the departed. To keep them where they belong, ceremonies are done and offerings are made. The world of the dead or afterlife’s limbo once had a hopeless reputation, but this has started to change slowly with the arrival of various cults.
The early Christians had a very different perspective on death; they saw it simply as a doorway into God’s kingdom and believed that a bond could be kept alive between the living and the dead. It’s no longer a matter of appeasing the dead, but of just carrying on with their presence in your life, and the reasoning shifts dramatically. Because of this, it appears more accurate to argue that the Christian celebration of the dead succeeded the pagan celebrations rather than inheriting them. Since the beginning of winter is often associated with the beginning of death in many cultures, the dates’ coincidence serves as symbolic proof.
A Feast Dedicated to the Dead
Christians pray for the deceased on a regular basis, and very early on, a service was held just for them. Amalarius mentioned an office for the deceased as early as the year 820.
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Odilo of Cluny imposed the date of November 2, the day following All Saints’ Day, on all of his monasteries in 998, presumably invoking the same concept of communion of saints.
This day first sanctioned by Pope Leo IX (1049–1054) and became a fixture in the Christian calendar. In fact, it gained so much popularity that all of Christendom adopted November 2 as the official Day of the Dead in the 13th century (at least the ones dependent on Rome, the Armenians, for example, celebrate their dead at Easter).
Many European Christians traditionally visit cemeteries on the holiday of All Saints’ Day (which falls on November 1) to place flowers on the graves of the departed. In Mexico, the celebration is given special significance via a process of syncretism in which pre-Columbian practices of honoring the deceased are kept alive.
November 3, 2022
Halloween: Origin, Meaning, and History
The origin of the term “Halloween” has long been a mystery. It’s an abbreviation for “All Hallows’ Eve,” which means All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day). Halloween’s origin dates back more than 2,500 years to when the Pagan people were celebrating a festival that was then called Samhain. Both the new year and the dead were honored during this Celtic and Gallic festivity.
The druids kept the new fire burning, and the celebrations included ritual sacrifices, mead-sharing, and a feast. How was Halloween practiced among the Celts? The American celebration of St. Patrick’s Day has its roots in Ireland; therefore, what Irish tale gave rise to these traditions? Discover where and when this autumnal custom of Halloween originated.
The Origin and Meaning of Halloween
Samhain, the ancestor of Halloween.
Samhain, a Celtic celebration with spooky overtones, is where Halloween gets its start. Samhain, which means “end of summer” in contemporary Gaelic, is still the name of the month of November in Irish and other languages today. More than 2,500 years ago on a full moon night in October, when the Celtic year came to a close in Ireland, Great Britain, and northwest Gaul, this ritual festival was organized to celebrate the upcoming new year. This event was already celebrated in several countries during this historical period.
There are two distinct halves to the Celtic calendar year, the dark half starting on Samhain (November 1) and the bright half commencing on Beltane (May 1), and both are as significant. There were also two distinct seasons in Western European countries—winter and summer—because of the region’s moderate and humid environment. The community’s pace of life shifted as summer winded down. Herds were brought inside for the winter, relieving farmers of their duties during this season.
Why Is Halloween Celebrated on October 31st?
Unlike the Gregorian calendar, which was based on the sun, the lunar calendar used by the Celts meant that the dates of their most important festivals were not set in stone. Samhain was celebrated precisely on the night of the next full moon. Therefore, that is why October 31 is chosen as the date for Halloween for “convenience.” Samhain was more than just a religious celebration at the beginning of the new year since it symbolized the opening of the bridge between the living and the dead.
The Feast of Samhain, the Ancestor of Halloween
Samhain is a 7-day celebration that begins three days before the full moon and continues for another three days thereafter. It is mandatory for everyone to join, regardless of their social standing, or they will be punished by the gods. There are lots of pork, beer, mead, and wine during the Samhain feast. Pig, a god of destruction and terror, is revered as a holy food that grants eternal life. On the other hand, mead is a honey-water alcoholic beverage.
This festival is intended to create bridges between the two worlds (those of the living and the dead), where everyone is invited to come to the other side. This allows the deceased to lose their gift of invisibility. It is a celebration in the sense that people meet “in the middle” of the actual and abstract worlds.
Celtic languages have a shared etymology for the words “middle” and “drunkenness.” In addition to the usual fare of sacrifices and lighting a new fire, the Samhain celebration also included ritualized games and musical performances. For the druids to reignite a new fire in every home and usher in the new year, the Gauls put out their old fires.
In addition to being a religious holiday, Samhain also served as a political, military, and commercial event when deals were sealed. Although it was mostly a peaceful celebration, the renewal of the king’s authority served as a fitting capstone to the occasion.
The Roman invasion had an impact on Celtic culture since it introduced a harvest festival in honor of an Etruscan goddess named Pomona. Since Christianity condemned the Pagan practice, it was eventually replaced by the All Saints’ Day holiday celebration. Despite the destruction of their ancient temples, Pagan practices continued. The celebration of All Saints’ Day became an official holiday in Europe in 837. Thus, Halloween, or Samhain, was pushed back to be celebrated on October 31st, a day earlier than usual.
From Turnip to Pumpkin: The Celtic Legends Reached America
Following the potato famine (the “Great Famine”) of 1846–48, many Irish emigrated to the United States, bringing with them a wealth of folklore, including their renowned Samhain festival, which over time turned into today’s Halloween.
The Origin of the Pumpkin on Halloween
You’ve certainly heard the story of Jack O’Lantern, the drunkard who was sent out of heaven on October 31 for daring to play jokes on the devil before he was later killed. Jack O’Lantern was condemned to wander in the dark with a lantern for all eternity. The lantern was a turnip he was munching on, and the candle he placed inside to protect it from the wind.
At the end of the 19th century, Halloween was made a national holiday in the United States for the first time. US citizens started to celebrate Halloween with its associated custom of “Trick-or-Treating,” going from door to door in search of sweets. And the pumpkin, since it is much simpler to carve than the turnip, became the primary emblem of Halloween.
As for the kids going door to door asking for candy, that practice has its roots in Irish culture, where it was common for the impoverished to beg for food from the more well-off. The witches and wizards, as well as the concept of threatening the people with a nasty fate if they refuse, are both relatively modern developments.
Movies About Halloween
Friday the 13th, a 1980 horror film directed by John Carpenter, added more suspense to Halloween. This includes the original 1978 Halloween movie from the same director that went on to become the focus of a long-running, critically acclaimed series.
In 2022’s Halloween Ends, the myth is revived once again, cementing the festival’s reputation as a party that is both innocent for children and a source of overflowing and terrifying imagination for the older ones.
Tradition and Commercialism Collide at Halloween
Even today, people in Scotland and Wales continue to gather around bonfires as a symbol of Samhain or Halloween, since it is a custom that originated in the Celtic culture. Halloween games involving fruit, such as jumping into a pool to grab apples or apple bobbing, are a tradition in both the United States and Britain that dates back to the Roman harvest festival.
The tradition of using candlelight to illuminate carved pumpkins, the “Jack-o’-lanterns,” in the form of hideous masks dates back to the same Roman harvest festival.
Particularly in the latter half of the 20th century, Halloween became one of the largest holidays in many European countries, third only to Christmas and Easter. However, as Europeans already have many historical celebrations and Halloween has become too commercial, the holiday has lost its magic in Europe.
The distinction between the Day of the Dead celebration (which originated in Mexico) and Halloween is worth noting. The former is celebrated on November 2nd to remember the deceased, and it does not have a connection with Halloween.
October 14, 2022