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What Is the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos)? Origins & History
Popularly known for its bright-colored decorations and ornamental sugar skulls, the Day of the Dead is among the most highly celebrated and anticipated holidays in Mexican culture. With origins in the Catholic All Saints’ Day, el Día de los Muertos is a celebration of the dead influenced by both Spanish culture imported from Europe and ancient Aztec customs dating back centuries. Today, Day of the Dead celebrations involve days-long festivals and visiting the graves of deceased ancestors while spending time with friends and family.
What Is the Day of the Dead?
Four Calaveras, Patssi Valdez, 1998. Source: The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA.
By far the most famous and iconic Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos) takes place on the 1st and 2nd of November every year. As the name implies, Día de Muertos is a celebration of the dead. Friends and families gather to honor deceased relatives, loved ones, and even long-past ancestors. It is believed that during this time, the dead are able to come back to Earth to visit the living they left behind.
And the living welcome them with open arms.
While the subject of death may seem a rather dark theme to foreigners, the Day of the Dead is in reality a colorful, joyful, and generally light-hearted holiday. The streets are decorated with brightly colored papel picado (“perforated paper”), and painted sugar skulls are made and exchanged between friends. Homemade altars are set up in the home to welcome the dead with offerings (ofrendas) like food, alcohol, and toys.
Día de Muertos has extended far beyond the theme of honoring the dead, taking on a life of its own in Mexico. In the days following Halloween, people gather to spend time with loved ones and celebrate life as much as death. Festivals are held where sweet treats are abundant—particularly the aptly named pan de muerto or “bread of death.” Decorative skull imagery dominates altars, street art, and even people’s faces, as the living take on this iconic symbol of the dead in a uniquely light-hearted manner.
In its essence, Día de Muertos celebrates the balance between life and death, acknowledging their relationship without the typically associated existential dread.
The question remains: where did such a unique holiday come from, and why does it exist only in Mexico?
An Age-Old Tradition: History & Origins of Day of the Dead
Photograph of Aztec dancers in a Day of the Dead parade in Los Angeles, Richard Vogel, 2021. Source: The Atlantic
The Day of the Dead, and the timing of it within the year, may seem somewhat familiar already. This is because the holiday overlaps with—and originates from—the traditional Catholic holidays All Saints’ Day (November 1st) and All Souls’ Day (November 2nd). Dating back to the Middle Ages in Europe, November 2nd was set aside to commemorate the dead and perform special prayers in their honor.
Not to mention the connection with Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, taking place only one day before.
But what makes Mexico’s holiday unique is the indigenous influence of Mesoamerican customs dating back hundreds of years. Día de Muertos showcases a unique combination of cultural celebrations. European conquistadors brought with them the Catholic traditions of Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day, but it was the Aztec relationship with death that turned these foreign practices into something completely new.
This is a common phenomenon known as syncretism.
History has seen this happen again and again: trade and conquest bring cultures together and induce the assimilation of religious beliefs. Take, for example, the way the Romans combined aspects of Hellenistic deities with pre-existing Roman Gods to create the Greco-Roman pantheon as it is known today.
The so-called Aztec origins of Día de los Muertos are a little more complex. Some argue that pre-Columbian funerary rituals closely resemble the celebratory perspective on death that is embodied in the holiday. Other scholars reject this and assert that the Day of the Dead is simply a unique expression of pre-existing Catholic holidays from Europe. Some even claim that the government promoted the Mexican identity of the holiday as a way to encourage tourism.
Wherever its origin, the holiday has become an enduring symbol of Mexican culture.
Honoring the Dead: Día de los Muertos Celebrations & Customs
Photograph of relatives spending the night at the graves of loved ones, Eduardo Verdugo, 2021. Source: The Atlantic
The “Day” of the Dead actually spans the period from October 31st to November 2nd. On the last night of October and into the early morning hours of November 1st, groups of families and friends will march together to local cemeteries to hold vigil through the night at the graves of those they’ve lost. Candles, flowers, and other personalized goods and food are brought to the graveyard to be offered at the resting places of the deceased.
The living sit among the dead for hours to welcome them back to Earth. In some places, this vigil is held on the 2nd of November instead and is known as La Llorada (“The Mourning”). When morning comes, the living and dead both return to the home for more light-hearted observations of the holiday.
The home is the site of the most beloved cultural custom associated with this holiday: the ofrenda. Home altars dedicated to dead relatives and ancestors will feature images of lost loved ones along with offerings like food and toys. This will lead the visiting souls into the home to spend time amongst their living counterparts.
In urban centers like Mexico City, blow-out celebrations can include parades and concerts in colorfully decorated streets teeming with tourists looking for an authentic experience. Friends will write humorous poems for each other, known as calaveritas (“little skulls”). These playful verses will poke fun at or honor the living subject as though they have already passed away. Calaveritas can also be written about celebrities, public figures, and even politicians as a form of comedy or satire.
Heart of the Celebration: The Ofrenda
Covid Memorial Ofrenda, Alejandro García Nelo, 2021. Source: National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL.
By far, the most popular way to celebrate the Day of the Dead is by creating an altar dedicated to one or multiple loved ones who have passed.
These home altars are called ofrendas in reference to the offerings that are left for the deceased, welcoming them into the home on the day they return to earth. Families will come together to assemble food, drinks, trinkets, and toys for those they’ve lost. In addition to pictures of those who have passed, the ofrenda typically includes local fruits, fresh flowers (especially marigolds, the “flower of the dead”), herbs, sweets, and pan de muerto, which resembles white bones.
These treats are typically personalized—featuring a late grandmother’s favorite meal, for example, or a bottle of a dead great uncle’s favorite tequila. Since it is generally believed that the returning spirits cannot actually eat or drink the offerings, the idea is that their souls will bask in the familiar aromas they enjoyed in life. Fresh flowers and home-cooked meals are the best for this. It is easy to imagine how the deceased would relish the strong smell of freshly picked marigolds, or hot tamales put out for them by their loved ones.
La Calavera Catrina, Jose Guadalupe Posada (1910). Source: The Grace Museum
However, ofrendas are not just for relatives—and are not only made in the home. The traditional custom of creating ofrendas for the dead has expanded well beyond the traditional home altar. Every year, public displays are curated for community members, historical figures, and modern celebrities who have passed away. Ofrendas have appeared in schools, historic sites, and even museums and art galleries, where they have become more like exhibits than simple home offerings.
This cultural practice has even been imported into the United States in recent decades by Chicano and Mexican communities throughout the country.
Día de los Muertos & Halloween: Rival Identities
Photograph of a mural reading “No to Halloween” and “Preserve your traditions” in Morelos, Mexico, Stanley Brandes, 1995. Source: Journal of American Folklore
It goes without saying that the Day of the Dead has a lot in common with the American celebration of Halloween. Taking place on October 31st, Halloween is based around the millennia-old pagan holiday of Samhain. Celebrated by the Gaelic peoples in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, Samhain was a New Year holiday held on November 1st. The Celtic belief was that Samhain was the one day of the year on which the spirits of the dead were allowed to return to Earth to roam amongst the living.
Sound familiar?
Although Samhain, which has since become the Irish word for the month of November, was celebrated on the 1st of the month, it technically began at sunset on October 31st. Unsurprisingly, this long-held pagan belief that the dead would return on the last night of October would last through the transition to Christianity—becoming what is now playfully celebrated as Halloween.
And so Samhain has been transformed over time and distance into the holidays of All Saint’s Day, Halloween, and, of course, the Day of the Dead. In recent decades, the American tradition of Halloween has begun creeping into Mexico. Because the Day of the Dead has become so closely tied with Mexican identity, Halloween is viewed by many as America’s influence encroaching on Mexico’s unique culture. Urban communities have somewhat begun embracing the American customs, while rural Mexicans stick by El Día de los Muertos and reject the foreign influence of Halloween.
Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park, Diego Rivera (1947). Source: The Grace Museum
Day of the Dead vs Halloween is seen by many Mexicans as Mexico vs the United States (or, more accurately, the US influence). To some, Halloween represents a commercial, foreign, anti-Christian holiday that is inherently at odds with Mexican cultural traditions. Institutions like churches and local governments have in the past discouraged Halloween celebrations and encouraged Day of the Dead celebrations like public ofrenda displays. Others, however, continue to embrace the merging of the two holidays and accept the influence of their neighboring country as a harmless addition to their long-practiced festivities.
Regardless of these influences, Día de los Muertos remains a uniquely Mexican holiday that embraces death with open arms—and fresh tamales.
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