 | Day of the Dead | |
| Day of the Dead | |
Last month we were lucky enough to be in Mexico during the traditional Dias de Muertos celebration. Day of the Dead is actually several days and runs from the 28th October through to 2nd November. The festival is a fascinating example of the blending of different Mexican traditions and beliefs as it includes elements from the "cult of the dead" which existed among the pre-Hispanic peoples and the Catholic rituals of All Saints Day. In recent years, the festival has also been influenced by the North American tradition of Halloween, with kids dressing up and trick or treating. It is a unique mixture of celebration and sadness and shows very clearly how Mexicans respect death and their deceased loved ones, but also how they joke and play with the concept of death. Every family or community have different days on which they celebrate the return of the souls of their deceased family members. Each day marks the return of different categories of the dead - the 28th October is for those who died in an accident, the 31st for those who died as children (and are therefore angels) and those who died as adults are remembered on 2nd November.
One of the defining features of the Day of the Dead celebrations is that each household, and even shops and other businesses, construct their own altar dedicated to members of their family or friends who have died. The traditional altar de Dia de Muertos is an offering that honours the deceased relative who, according to popular belief, return to visit their dwellings and relatives. The altar is usually laid out on a table covered with a white tablecloth or with intricate tissue paper cut-outs called papel de china picado (which look like weird doilies with skeletons and other deathly things on them) and loads of flowers, normally the typical funeral flower, cempasuchiles (a type of marigold).
Offerings are then placed on the table and include everything the deceased enjoyed in life and will want to savour on their return. They include gifts of their favorite food (mole (typical Oaxacan sauce), tamales etc.) and drink (beer, mezcal, soft drinks). Chocolate, a special bread called pan de muertos (which is made from egg yolks and has a religious face made out of dough stuck on it), and skull-shaped candy are also very common. Since pre-hispanic times it has been custom to place incense on the altar. Smell is incredibly important so as to satisfy the dead who, though obviously not able to eat, will be able to appreciate the richness of the offerings. Altars often also have religious pictures, photos of the deceased and personal mementoes like their hat or their favourite piece of music. They are always very beautiful to see and as they are lit by many candles, the colours are incredibly vivid. People are always very proud of their altars and are pleased to show you all the special features.
The other main feature of Day of the Dead is the decoration and all-night visiting of graves. The most amazing amount of work (and cost I imagine) goes into the sometimes elaborate adorning of the grave. Again there are many of the same elements as seen in the altars, particularly flowers, candles, and candied skulls. On graves of children they often include their favourite toy which always brings a lump to your throat. The whole family take part in the decorating with a lot of fun and laughter taking place. It is after they have finished the decorating, with the family seated around the grave side that it is obvious that people are remembering their loved ones as a pensive mood pervades. There is a surreal eeriness as you hear whispered voices and see the whole cemetery shimmering in candle light.
This feeling is slightly diminished when the bus-loads of tourists arrive. We felt very pleased with ourselves that at both the cemeteries that we visited (Xoxocotlan and San Felipe) we were there before the hoardes arrived and were able to really soak up the atmosphere feeling very honoured to be witnessing this public show of private remembrance. Some of the most touching graves were those with a simple beauty. But the very elaborate were also amazing to see with the amount of care and attention to detail.
Some of the graves had intricate sand paintings on them which ranged from the very religious to the cheeky. Sand paintings were also on display in front of the Catedral in the centre of Oaxaca. Designed and constructed by the School of Art, these huge pictures caricatured death with images of skulls, skeletons and coffins although some had stepped in some "pseudo-abstract shite" (Tristan's words!) which consisted of boring blocks of colour. Unfortunately we didn't take pictures of these as we didn't like them, but here are some that we thought were very cool!
We visited several cemeteries during the festival which were all fascinating. But perhaps the most memorable day was when we visited my ceramics teacher, Enedina, at her house in Atzompa, a village outside of Oaxaca. She had insisted that we come and see her, even though her mother was very ill. So Tristan and I with a friend of mine from school, Katherine, and her mother, jumped in a cab and off we went. Ene wasn't at home when we got there, due to a slight misunderstanding about when we would arrive (!), so we chatted to her son while we waited. The village was obviously pretty poor. Ene's house was in her family compound and it was quite run down. The houses were basically rooms with tin roofs, around a large yard with three huge kilns in them - pottery runs in the family! We saw a rat chasing a mouse in the yard!
When Ene came back we all greeted each other warmly. She was in good form and was very welcoming. She showed us her altars - she had a large one which was dedicated to the adult members of her family that had died. She also had a very touching smaller altar dedicated to her daughter who had tragically died aged 3 years old. It's very hard to think of appropriate things to say about altars, except that they are beautiful which never seems quite enough - typical western reserve about subjects like death.
Some of the rest of the family were also around which included her sister-in-law and various nieces. They all very sweetly showed us their altars as every house had their own.
We had come empty handed not knowing quite what to bring. So having asked her what she would like and not getting an obvious answer, we went into the nearest shop. Nothing jumped out at us as a suitable present - until we spotted a bottle of mezcal and a bottle of bacardi. We asked the shop-keeper if she knew Ene which she of course did, as she lived opposite! "Well, which would Ene prefer - the mezcal or the bacardi?" we asked. The shop-keeper burst out laughing and replied "Ene? She will drink anything - she just likes to drink!". So we bought her a cuba libre kit - bacardi, coke and some limes. Ene was thrilled at this present! She insisted that we all have a cuba libre there and then and that Tristan had to do the honours! We all got completely sozzled on rum and cokes and had many a good joke about how we all thought we could suddenly speak fluent Spanish or English! Perhaps you had to be there to appreciate how hilarious this was!Not wanting to be left out we decided to have our own altar. One of my family cats had died the previous Sunday, so we decided to dedicate our altar to Amy - the cat. We didn't want to be disrespectful about the fascinating and liberating beliefs and traditions associated with Dias de Muertos but very fortunately we don't have any recently departed family members and anyway we are very fond of our cats in my family. So here are several views of our altar - we know Amy would have liked the tuna fish but we don't know how she would have taken to the mezcal!
-Tamar, December 2000.
P.S. For another account of Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, as well as more pics, visit our friends Johan and Kristi's excellent site.
