Drop dead things to know about the Mexican "Day of the dead"

Understanding the essential things you need to know about this ancient Mexican tradition

Playa Mia's Artist Dannielle on a Day of The Dead them

Halloween is an American tradition that has been adopted in Mexico and serves as a preamble to the celebration of the Day of the Dead or "Dia de los Muertos" (deeah deh luss mooehrttuss). Even though the two celebrations have their origin in life after death, they are completely different. The Day of the Dead is not a Mexican version of Halloween.  While Halloween fears the dead, Mexicans celebrate with them and set "altares" (shrines) rather than tombs.

The Day of the dead is actually a two-day celebration as it is ancestrally believed that the souls of the deceased return to Earth every year on these two days. The first day, November the 1st is for the souls of the children, and the 2nd is devoted to honoring the souls of the adults. For that, the road back home is marked with cempasúchil flowers, candles and the smell of copal incense. The feast is made with the favorite food and drinks of those who were once among us.

The Day of the Dead is a three thousand year tradition whose origin is the Aztec myth that souls walked the path of death and returned to earth before they reach the Mictlán or sacred place of the dead.

Rife with symbolism, the Day of the Dead is a celebration of life, a tradition that passes from generation to generation. The UNESCO has acknowledged it as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

To appreciate and understand a little bit better about Mexico’s most colorful tradition, here are the essential things you should know about the “Dia de Muertos”.

Altar

“Altar” is the Spanish for shrine. People use to place a table or any other suitable structure at home to set the offerings to honor the deceased ones. The family gather before this altar to pray, eat, recall memories and "share" time with their loved ones. Altars are profusely decorated with flowers, food, religious images, pictures and pre-Hispanic elements such as the four elements, water, earth, wind and fire, this is why you will always see candles, water, clay pots or quicklime  crosses and colorful banners of "Papel Picado", the streams of cut-out tissue paper flags representing the wind.

Altarfor the Day of the Dead

Food

Mmmm… yummy! Concerning the Day of the dead, food occupies a preeminent place over the other elements present on an altar as the whole family will share the meal. They prepare the favorite dishes of the one honored in the altar. Tamales, tacos and "mole" are usual. Mole is the closest to a national feast dish, it is made with a variety of ground dried chiles and chocolate; it might sound really weird to the uninitiated, however, it's glorious.

In Cozumel, the Maya culture rules, and Hanal-pixán is Maya for "meal for the dead" The star of that meal is the pib, or better THE PIB. It is a large kind of tamale (the size of cake pan). It consists of a thick corn dough crust filled with precooked chicken pieces seasoned with annatto; the broth left is thickened and then poured into the crust along with the chicken pieces, raw tomato slices, and hard-boiled eggs. Filled to the rim, the crust is then covered with a lid of the same dough. Afterward, It is thoroughly wrapped in banana leafs and placed into an earth oven to smolder it for hours; simply delicious, it is not hard to understand why it is a favorite for the living and the dead.

PIB making

"El Pan de Muerto" or <the bread of dead> is a paramount element of the season,  it is about a pound loaf of bread which is decorated with "bones", "tears" and a "skull" made out of the same dough. Usually, a ball of dough at the top of it represent the skull and four femora like bones make a cross and in-between the bones a teardrop-like piece of dough complete the decoration, everything is varnished with a lay of battered eggs and then topped with sugar. Every sweet fluffy bite of it is a piece of heaven and yet that's not all.

Bread of the Dead, a delicacy for the living ones

Warm freshly made chocolate is the unsplittable companion to a piece of "Pan de Muerto". We are not talking about cocoa powder, but actual roasted-chocolate seeds ground to a paste-like dough mixed with sugar which is then bring to boil in milk or water. In some other regions with more entrenched indigenous traditions, fresh grounded cooked corn is added to the concoction along with brown sugar, vanilla, cloves, anise, or cinnamon to make  "atole" or "champurrado".

Chocolate making

A special mention is deserved to the "Calaveritas", no altar element is likely wider known abroad that the iconic colorful sugar skulls which are also made with chocolate or amaranth seeds glued with honey. Typically a small banner on the forehead bears the name of the honored dead. Little versions of it are used as presents for children and grown along the season.

Mouth-watering sugar skulls

While pumpkins make wonderful jack-o-lanterns in the States, in Mexico they make a delicious pumpkin dessert known as "Dulce de Calabaza", consisting of rough-cut pieces of pumpkin cooked in a syrup made out of brown sugar cones, and cinnamon; it is a must try.

Is that all about food? A resounding no is the answer. This is not but the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of regions and towns have their own traditional dishes for the occasion. This is without mentioning the iconic beverages of Mexico such as Mezcal, Tequila, and beer which are present in every party along the year and the "Muertos" day is not an exception.

Flowers

Flowers is not a minor topic on "Dia de Muertos", the main performer of this celebration is the Aztec marigold or "cempasúchil", or flower of the four hundred petals, whose smell is believed to attract the dead and its yellow color evokes the sun, whose light illuminates the path of the soul. In many regions of Mexico, an arch frames the altar, and it is profusely decorated with flowers, it alludes the entrance to the underworld. The hot purple cockscomb flowers (“Terciopelo”) represents mourn and spiritual recollection.

Some towns elaborate intricated designs of extraordinary beauty with petals of different colors, to decorate the path from the main church to the cemetery to mark the way to the souls. Complete communities participate to pay for and make them due to the importance that these rituals represent to their loved departed ones.

the white flowers such as chrysanthemums (“Crisantemos”) and baby's breath (“Nube”) that represent purity and love. Traditionally, white bouquets of "Crisantemos" are used to decorate the tombs of deceased children or "Angelitos" (angels).

Aztec marigold or "Cempasúchil" grower

History

The Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 2, the date that coincides with the Catholic celebration of the faithful departed, same that had its origin in the France of the fifteenth century and that the Spanish conquerors brought with them in the s. XVI. Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures celebrated in August a cult of the dead presided over by a deity called Mictecacíhuatl or Lady of Death. Both customs converge inevitably, syncretizing the deep roots that this festival has today in the Mexican tradition.

The Aztecs practiced two important festivals: one for children called Miccaihuitontli, which was celebrated on August 8 according to the records of the first friars, and the one for adults (Hueymiccailhuitl) which close the festivities 20 days later. In-between the two dates, the Aztecs presented offerings to their dead and offered penances and purifications.

The Spaniards, on the other hand, used to go to the cemeteries and deposit bread, wine and flowers from the Day of All Saints, that is to say from a day before the Day of the Faithful Departed and prayed in the place to appease the deceased as some thought that on that day the souls wandered the earth and could take them with them. The offerings were presented on an altar and candles were set to guide the dead towards the altar.

The Aztec tradition of venerating children and adults was not eradicated by the Spaniards when converting them to Catholicism, however by papal recommendation, the celebrations were made to coincide with the dates of All Saints and the Faithful Dead, on days 1 and 2 November in the Spanish style instead of the separate parties of the Aztec tradition. Since then it is considered that day 1 is the day of the souls of children and day two of those of adults.

Mictecacíhuatl, the Lady of Death

As we have seen, the celebration of the Day of the Dead is a rich amalgam of history, cultures, customs, colors, and flavors, which inspires artists, photographers, and scholars to document in one way or another this endless party. Museums and institutions hold exhibitions in Mexico and abroad. It seems ironic, but without a doubt, the celebration of the Day of the Dead continues as alive today as it has been the last 3000 thousand years.