Day of the Dead: A Beautiful Tradition

I have not written in English lately, and since it is important to keep languages fresh in my mind,

I decided to write somehting about my country, something positive and that makes us proud to be Mexicans and, proud to be of Mexico. My country currently needs a lot of positive vibes from the rest of the world due to the beyond difficult situation we are facing to the inside of the country. I know that Mexico has many economic, social and moreover, political problems however, we have something that many countries do not: We try to stand up against problems and in general, be positive while we are in (seriously) desperate situations. Mexico will be changing soon, that is for

sure.

My entry is not to overwhelm my readers with the problems we have here. I would like to use this space to talk about a tradition that has been with us for many years, and that is considered as part of Human Heritage for UNESCO. I will present you the Day of the Dead, and precisely today because we are celebrating it.

The Day of the Dead exists since the very beginning of Mexico's written history. The ancient cultures used to celebrate it, each of them in a very different and unique way, which explains the variety of different expressions throughout the country. The Day of the Death has its origins in prehispanic times, when the different civilisations (Olmecs, Toltecs, etc.) interpreted and understood the painful, yet natural, phenomenon of death. Most of them understood death as part of the process of life, and almost all of them believed in life after death.

The very first examples of altars and offerings to the dead, are the handful of archeological findings in tombs and temples throughout Mexico. People used to put objects such as vases, jewelry, baskets, tools, (among others), around the bodies of the people when they were buried. They thought such objects would be useful for them, either during their voyage to the other world, or in the other world as such.

Civilisations had very different rituals during burials, because it depended on who and what the person did during his/her life, for example: government officials and priests had very luxurious burials, most of the tombs found in temples showed that they were buried with jewels and objects made out of precious stones or of gold. People who used to be of the high classes of society had similar burials, but the difference lied in the quality of the objects, because the ones who used to be peasants or slaves were buried in small places and had few objects in their tombs.

Warriors and sacrified people had very particular burials, because they would either be piled up in common mass graves inside temples, or on the opposite, they would have a single tomb for themselves. Gods and divinities who represented death also varied, but the most known one is the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl who lived in the 'Mictlan', the underworld. In the case of the Aztecs, some temples had separate graves, whereas in the case of Teotihuacan, recent findings show that mass graves were used on certain parts below the pyramids. Teotihuacan is still full of mistery, for arcehologists have not deciphered yet the cause of their sudden vanishment and the reaosn why they abandoned their city.

Ancient tombs also have a particularity: in the case of the Aztecs, most of them would be built or directed towards the North, because they considered that such cardinal point was the place of the dead, and it is the same situation with Teotihuacan. Many important temples in Mexico are in specific places due to the importance and interpretation each civilisation gave to the cardinal points and the astral phenomena, for example: In the case of the Mayan people, Chichén Itzá was used as an observation point for astral phenomena. Nowadays, the pyramid of Kukulkán shows how the 'Snake of the Sun' comes down the stairs every Spring. Mexico keeps a remarkable record in the beginnings of Astronomy and Maths, two sciences which Mayan people developed thoroughly.

When Spain entered to Mexico, many traditions of burials and rituals were lost when conquerors imposed Catholicism and forced all indigenous people to believe in their God. Spanish conquest reprsents a very dark and sorrowful stage for Latin American history, because in the case of Mexico, they brought the Holy Inquisition which killed more than a thousand people 'in the name of God' (sounds familiar?), and the same with smallpox, which finished Aztecs off after the bloody war of 1521. During these horrible times, people had to hide away of the Spanish people and honour their loved ones in secret.

Spanish eventually discovered these rituals, and had to accept them, because in the end, the Day of the Death got associated with Catholic rituals of burials, this is why on the 1st of November, the country celebrates the 'Holy Saints' Day, which is directed towards children who died, and on the 2nd of November comes everybody else. The most important elements inside the celebrations of the Day of the Dead are worshipping and the altars. People go to graveyards and put flowers and the altar on the loved one's tomb (this is a tradition in the nearby town of Mixquic), or people would put them at home. Tradition says that spirits of loved ones come on the 1st and 2nd of November to visit their families and taste the food they used to like left in the altar.

The most common elements inside altars are: Cempasúchil flowers (a type of marigold that symbolises light, and that it is used to build a path for the spirits to get to the altar), food (depends on the preferences of the loved ones, any food can be used), candles, beverages (tequila, mezcal, any drink that they used to like, also atole, which is a corn-made drink), water, sugar, salt, pan de muerto (a round loaf of bread with sugar that has particular decorations that resemble bones), sugar or chocolate skulls with or without the name of the loved one (all Mexicans love to be gifted one of these during those days), photographs of their loved ones, and decorative paper (soft and thin coloured paper that has patterns of skulls and other symbols cutted out). Tablecloth can also be used, but the paper also has a meaning, because the colour depends on the cause of the person's death: black is for natural causes, red for accident, yellow for disease and white when the altar is for a child. Many people also use crosses and images of Christian deities, as well as elements used by the Aztecs, such as corn.

It is a very emotional and important tradition for many, and it also obeys to the faith and hope all we, human beings have in seeing all of their loved ones again at some point of our existence. Mexico gets filled with colour, light, and smiles during these days, because this tradition makes families to gather and have a good time eating bread, drinking chocolate and remembering their loved ones. This is just a tiny portion of the wonders Mexico has to show to the world.