MEXICO CITY.- José García López was sweating profusely as he stirred a cauldron of boiling oil in which dozens of potatoes were swimming, but although he had to be very careful not to burn himself, his mind only thought of one thing: the offerings for his dead.
"Right now I'm done with this and I'm going to buy the paper and candles that I need. I can't let my grandparents down," he said Friday afternoon, on the sidewalk of the Panteón Francés de la Piedad, an old cemetery in Mexico City.
García López is a street vendor who, like millions of Mexicans inside and outside the country, celebrates the Day of the Dead, a holiday in which pre-Columbian and Catholic traditions mix to honor relatives and loved ones who have passed away.
Women dressed as catrinas who participated in a procession for the Day of the Dead in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, on October 28, 2022. Daniel Ricárdez / EFE
"In Mexico, November 1 and 2 are very special days because they celebrate All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, respectively. It is a purely Catholic tradition that the Spaniards bring to Mexico and merges with the entire worldview or form of Mesoamerican thought,
it is a festival that gives us belonging and unites us"
, explains Diana Martínez, an academic at the Institute of Anthropological Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
It is a party that gives us belonging and unites us"
Diana Martínez Academic of the unam
The Day of the Dead is celebrated in various parts of Mexico, and in many cities in the United States such as Los Angeles and New York where large offerings, parades and cultural events are held.
In countries like Spain, the Philippines, Brazil and Guatemala, among others, they also have traditions to celebrate their deceased.
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Popular beliefs vary depending on the Mexican region but, in general, they establish that October 28 is celebrated for those who died tragically or accidentally, October 30 is dedicated to those who died without being baptized and are in limbo, November 1 is for deceased children and November 2 focuses on adults.
Both public places and homes are filled with altars or offerings to commemorate loved ones with cempasúchil flowers, chopped paper, candles, salt, water, chocolate and sugar skulls, the famous bread of the dead, and food. and the favorite liquor of the ancestors.
The idea is magical and very powerful: to celebrate the dead for a few days in which their souls return to this plane to share with the living.
Here we live while relatives remember us"
Jose Garcia street vendor
"I like that Mexicans do not forget our dead, in that we are different. Here we live while relatives remember us," explains García López.
The origins of celebrating the dead
This festivity dates back to the 11th century, when the abbot of Cluny decided to create a special date to honor believers who died at the dawn of Christianity, when it was still considered a sect and persecutions and executions were frequent.
By the 13th century, the Roman Church established November 1 as All Saints' Day.
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"The kingdoms of León, Aragón and Castile prepared sweets and breads similar to relics, which are the remains or bones of saints. The interesting thing is that this was combined with the pre-Hispanic festivals related to the end of the rainy season, the Harvest harvest and drought. It is that duality of abundance and scarcity, of life and death," says Martínez, the UNAM researcher.
[The exhibition 'The skulls of Frida' opens the celebrations of the Day of the Dead in Mexico]
Since time immemorial, ethnic groups such as the Nahuas established rites and festivals that celebrated the deceased, as is the case of
Miccailhuitontli
or Festival of the Little Dead.
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"Sometimes the hummingbird, sometimes the crow, sometimes the owl, tells us when we have to leave. But we Mexica do not die, we only change our houses, our bodies. And every year we come here," says an old Nahuatl poem .
We Mexica do not die, we only change houses, bodies.
And every year we come here"
nahuatl poem
The ancient Mexicans considered death as a transition,
it was not the end of existence but the beginning of the journey to Mictlan, the place of eternal rest.
According to tradition, the journey to the underworld lasts four years in which various obstacles and tests must be overcome to demonstrate our mettle and strength.
"In the first years of independence, what it was to be Mexican was revalued and that promoted a series of traditions such as the Day of the Dead. In the thirties of the 20th century, President Lázaro Cárdenas also promoted that celebration, trying to distance it a little from the Church and vindicating its pre-Hispanic roots," says Martínez.
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This celebration was declared by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage and in recent years it has transcended borders becoming a cultural phenomenon that has been enhanced by films such as
Coco
, a successful Pixar animated production that grossed more than 800 million dollars worldwide. world and whose argument focuses on this Mexican tradition.
Also, in
Spectre,
the James Bond franchise film released in 2015, the exciting opening sequence in which actor Daniel Craig seduces a beautiful catrina while running, jumping, shooting and exploding a building in the Historic Center of Mexico City , takes place against the backdrop of a colorful Day of the Dead parade.
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It is a case in which reality imitates fiction because that parade had never been done, but now it is celebrated every year and in 2021 it summoned 400,000 people.
This year it is estimated that almost two million people flocked to the main avenues of the city center to celebrate the dead, according to the capital authorities.
Culture is culture because it changes, adapts and transforms"
Enrique Rodríguez unam researcher
"There are people who say that this is pure cultural
marketing
, but they do not understand that
culture is culture because it changes, adapts and transforms
. For me it is a triumph that this parade is popular and brings together thousands of people," says Enrique Rodríguez Balám , researcher at the Peninsular Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at UNAM, in Mérida, Yucatán.
How is the Day of the Dead altar made?
From October 28, offerings begin to be made at altars, both public and private, and of all sizes.
Although there are variations, there seems to be a consensus among experts about the shape of the altars: they are three steps or levels that, from bottom to top, represent the underworld, the earthly plane and the upper stage.
"Although it began with the saints and the faithful departed,
now it has become popular to put movie stars, grandparents, saints and even pets
. In general, the offerings contain salt, water, copal, candles, flowers, papel picado, skulls, photographs of loved ones and the deceased's favorite dishes Depending on the region there are changes, for example, in the Huasteca arches with flowers and fruits are placed that invite the dead to enter to the earthly world," explains Martínez.
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According to the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, the offering symbolizes the cultural mixture, so each element has a specific meaning.
Water is a symbol of life and is included so that the souls recover after their long journey.
Since ancient times, salt has been an element of purification because, among other things, it helps prevent bodies from becoming corrupted.
The candles are light and guide so that the souls can return to their old places: the number of candles on the altar will depend on the souls that the family wants to receive.
If the candles are placed in the shape of a cross, they represent the cardinal points so that souls can find their way home.
The Zócalo of Mexico City inaugurates a large altar with offerings for the Day of the Dead
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Copal was used by Mesoamerican peoples to praise their gods, it is used to cleanse places of evil spirits.
Incense can also be used.
In general, the flowers adorn the room of the soul, and specifically the yellow cempasuchil flowers are stripped in some places to make paths of petals and guide the deceased to the offering.
The izcuintle dog helps the souls to cross the powerful river before entering the Mictlan.
Bread is a Christian element that symbolizes "the body of Christ." Portraits are the physical representation of loved ones who are no longer here, and their favorite dishes are also part of the celebration.
In Guatemalan cemeteries people play marimba and dance on the graves"
Enrique Rodríguez Researcher UNAM
Among the traditions of those dates, practices such as decorating tombs and even making altars on tombstones or funerary monuments stand out.
In some towns in Mexico there are dances with masks and it is believed that the souls of the dead take over the bodies of the living, for a while.
In towns in Guatemala, the celebrations lead to parties where people end up singing among the dead.
"In Guatemalan cemeteries, people play marimba and dance on the graves, while crying and getting drunk in a mixture of pain and suffering. It is something common that can also be seen in other regions influenced by the Mayan culture," says Rodríguez. Balam.
The great altar of the dead that they raised in the iconic '30 Rock' in New York
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However, few celebrations are as bizarre as those that take place in the Pomuch cemetery, in the Mexican state of Campeche, where the Cleaning of the Holy Remains takes place.
In that town, the remains of loved ones rest in boxes deposited in the niches of the cemetery and, every year, relatives gather to clean the bones of relatives.
"Some bones are white, others are amber, some more are brown. They smell like mountains (...) They clean the bones. Those of the legs, arms, torso, phalanges and skull. As they remove the dust and the cobwebs place them back in the box," writes chronicler Paul Antoine Matos in his book
Beautifiers of Bones
.
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Mexicans and death
The fascination and respect of Mexican culture for death has been a recurring motif in the country's literary tradition.
Important writers such as José Revueltas, Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz and Juan Rulfo have reflected on this.
"What is a fact is that
the Mexican's obsession with mixing death with a celebration with rituals and daily life is something very much ours
and that is what draws attention in other parts of the world," says Rodríguez Balám.
Dying and killing are ideas that rarely leave us.
Death seduces us.
The fascination it exerts on us may well spring from our secrecy and the fury with which we break it.
The pressure of our vitality, constrained to express itself in forms that betray it, explains the deadly, aggressive or suicidal character of our explosions.
When we explode, moreover, we touch the highest point of tension, we touch the vibrant vertex of life.
And there, at the height of the frenzy, we feel the vertigo: death draws us."
Octavio Paz, "The Labyrinth of Solitude"
Raúl Flores says that he knows the secrets of death well because his profession is linked to human remains.
As a gravedigger, he lives in the bowels of the earth where everything changes, even the notion of time.
The one meter pits are dug in one hour, the one meter and sixty centimeters in two hours.
The worst are those over two meters because sometimes it takes up to four hours.
This is how he measures time.
"In this job we deal with so many things and, in the end, death is something very, very common, right? It's just one more step that all people, rich and poor, have to go through," says Flores, 57. .
From a very young age he works in the French Pantheon of Mercy, where every November he sees suffering humanity parade.
"It is a beautiful tradition, because people remember their grandparents, their parents, their brothers.
It is not sad, rather many times they look happy when they make the altars. People think that cemeteries are scary, but no. They are the quietest places," he warns with a fixed gaze.