For All Saints' Day, a major holiday in Mexico, the inhabitants of a Mayan community have returned to an ancestral tradition: cleaning the bones of their dead, a ritual suspended last year due to a pandemic.
“Get out, get out, souls in pain”
, sing women in the cemetery of Pomuch, in the middle of the forest in the Yucatan peninsula (south-east).
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In front of them, large open wooden boxes containing the remains of their loved ones, skulls and bones delicately placed on a white shroud embroidered with floral motifs, with the name of the deceased.
This ritual, called in Mayan Choo Ba'ak, takes place 10 days before the festivities of All Saints' Day, the Feast of the Dead ("Dia de los Muertos" in Spanish) that Mexicans will celebrate with fervor at the end of next week.
Small wooden boxes contain the remains of relatives delicately placed on a white shroud embroidered with floral motifs, with the name of the deceased.
LUIS PEREZ / AFP
“It is a very beautiful tradition, which consists in honoring the memory of our ancestors. We are changing their shroud, ”
explains Jacinta Chi, a resident of Pomuch.
"They are happy that we remember them with a lot of tenderness, a lot of love"
.
The ritual is well established:
"Open the grave, take out the bones, replace the shroud, clean the bones"
, says Antonio Canché, 74, brush in hand, to honor the remains of his in-laws, his own parents. and an uncle.
"With joy, with enthusiasm,"
he smiles.
Between songs and anecdotes, families watch over the remains for several hours.
A century-old tradition
According to custom, this mortuary toilet must be done each year from the three years following the death of the deceased.
“Last year, due to the pandemic, we were unable to respect the ritual.
A lot of people were afraid, ”
says Sebastien Yam, a cultural operator.
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The tradition dates back hundreds of years, according to village elders.
In Pomuch, the ritual is in full swing just before All Saints' Day, the day of the dead which marks the transitory return of the deceased to earth.
After washing the remains of loved ones, locals will set up an altar in their homes, which will display the favorite food and drink of the dead.
According to beliefs, the spirits of the deceased will return here below for a weekend to eat and drink.
This mortuary toilet must be done each year from the three years following the death of the deceased.
LUIS PEREZ / AFP
As far as Mexico City, the altar presents a “pan de muerto”, literally a “bread for the dead”, a delicious pastry that the living can also buy in the best bakeries for several weeks.
Inseparable from All Saints' Day in Mexico, the petals of the flowers of the dead or "cempasúchil" guide the souls of the dead to the altar.
The
“indigenous festivals dedicated to the dead”
were inscribed in 2008 in the intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO, which underlines that
“the fusion of pre-Hispanic rites and Catholic festivals allows the reconciliation of two worlds, that of indigenous beliefs and that of a vision introduced by Europeans in the 16th century ”
.
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