Tag Archives: dia de los muertos

El Día de los Muertos

Text:

S: “[T]here’s Día de los Muertos which is Day of the Dead. So for that we like have an alter in our house, which is basically just like pictures of all our dead relatives and we light candles and then we… pray to God that there like in a better place. A lot of the times we go to like the cemetery and we bring like food, their favorite food and we place it at like their grave and like tombstones and that’s you offering up the dead person’s favorite food. I forget what the reasoning is, you might want to research into that, but it’s like so they have something to remind them of their old life, comfort food? I’m not sure but you take their favorite food to their grave site.”

He later told me he celebrates it on November 2nd, but November 1st is celebrated too however that’s only for saints/angels.

Context: 

S is a Mexican American born in Long Beach, California. His parents are from Mexico. S celebrated this holiday since he was little as his parents taught it to him with one of his earliest memories of Día de los Muertos was celebrating it with and for his grandmother. S’s take on Día de los Muertos is it’s about preserving history and keeping traditions alive. 

S: “I like to think about it in terms of like when someone passes there’s a chance they’re not going to be remembered by like history you know? Like so few people get remembered by like the things they contributed to the world. Even historical figures, no one really likes… they just learn about them because you have to, no one really remembers as much. And when it comes to your family, you’re the only person who’s going to remember them. In terms of history, you know, they’re just going to be washed away like they didn’t really exist, so I guess it’s up to you to keep their memory alive and just make sure like the things they did while they were alive matters to you and it means something as a way to keep them like they’re still here, you know? Cause when you die, you’re gone, but your memory lives on and I guess that’s a way to make sure their memory doesn’t also die and they still live on through that which I guess is a big part of Day of the Dead and stuff like that.”

Interpretation:

Día de los Muertos is very much about honoring and remembering loved ones. They can be for family members, friends, idols, etc. however important ones are mostly for family members. As S explained, people celebrate this holiday to keep their loved ones alive in spirit as despite being physically gone. The concept of offering foods at graves and alters with pictures of the passed away is similar to the idea Valk explained with ghosts haunting family members and being territorial. Though the spirits of those who passed away here are tied to their graves and alter photos and are not hostile but almost guardian-like. 

Ritual: el Día de los Muertos

When I asked my informant if they had any special holiday traditions or rituals, they thought of el Día de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead. S told me that this was one of their favourite holidays, they love the vibrant colours, the joyful celebrations, the delicious food, and the beautiful altars set up in honour of loved ones. S told me that when the sun set, they would stroll down the streets of their neighbourhood every year, watching families setting up their altars for their loved ones who had passed and they would see candles flickering in the night, incense burning, and pictures of happy faces. They would also see lots of marigold blooms set around the altars, known as ‘ofrendas’, and the flower’s bright orange colour and strong fragrance are to help guide the souls of the dead home. S said that their mom would always bring out a tray of fresh pan de muerto which is a sweet bread that is eaten on this holiday, and they all took a piece. They love this holiday because they always felt a strong connection to their ancestors and their culture during el Día de los Muertos, and they said that it will always be a special time for their family and them.

I have always loved hearing stories about el Día de los Muertos and I think that it is such an amazing way of celebrating the life of a loved one who is no longer with us. Growing up, every time the thought of dying and the afterlife came to mind, it would quickly spiral out of control and I would get very anxious and stressed out because I just couldn’t wrap my head around the concept of it. Not knowing what happens when we die is a scary thought and I didn’t really have a comfort to hold onto. This is why I think el Día de los Muertos is such a great holiday because it helps you feel so bonded to your loved ones, even if they were no longer with you. The belief that the spirits of the dead come back from the afterlife to visit and spend time with their families on Earth would have been a very comforting and reassuring thought for me growing up.

Dia De Los Muertos-Day of the Dead: Mexican Holiday

Text: 

Me: “Do you have any holidays, rituals, or beliefs that you would like to share?”

DR: “Yes, I can talk about Dia de los Muertos.”

Me: “Is it a traditional holiday within your culture?”

DR: “Yes it’s a Mexican holiday typically celebrated Nov 1st-Nov 2nd every year. November 1st is dedicated to children who have died while November 2nd is the day celebrated for all other deceased people. The tradition usually happens at the cemetery or at one’s home. In the home, an altar is set up for the deceased people or individuals. They have decorations such as papel picado (colorful paper), cempasuchil which is a type of flower, and food that the deceased once loved. There are usually religious figures around the altar, most famously La Virgen de Guadalupe and other holy saints. These two days are meant to celebrate the life of the ones who have passed on and to allow them to come back in spirit while joining us in the real-world. It is often normal to see people painting their face to look like skeletons; this is to create a unity and to blur the line between the dead and the living.” 

Context (informant’s relationship to the piece, where they heard it, how they interpret it):

-DR’s relationship to this traditional Mexican holiday stems from her Mexican and Salvadorian culture as it’s an important holiday that is celebrated within her home. Her relationship to this traditional holiday also stems from the connection that she shares with her family as they honor their loved ones that have passed. For example, DR’s mother’s grandfather is always recognized and celebrated as her mom’s side of the family always goes to the cemetery, decorates his grave, and has a picnic with the foods that he loved. DR would hear about this holiday all through her life as she grew up in a typical Mexican household. DR has always been exposed to Dia de los Muertos as her own family traditionally celebrates it but she has also been exposed to it by attending a predominantly Latino grade school where the holiday was always honored and evident; an altar was typically displayed in her school’s library. DR interprets this holiday as a beautiful tradition that shouldn’t be looked upon with a somber attitude. Instead, DR interprets this festive practice as a happy way to remember our loved ones in a celebratory manner.

Analysis(what kind of personal, cultural, or historical values might be expressed) YOUR interpretation:

-The overall cultural value within Dia de los Muertos stems from a typical Mexican culture considering this holiday has originated and is widely evident in various parts of Mexico following the Mexican heritage. The cultural value of community is evident within this holiday considering Mexican communities come together to celebrate and to pay their respects. The personal values that are expressed within this celebratory holiday follows the religious and spiritual beliefs of many Catholic individuals. Given that Catholicism is typical for Mexican families to condone in, it is evident that the emphasis of celebrating one’s spirit during Dia de los Muertos is related to their idolization of religious figures (La Virgen de Guadalupe/Mother Mary) since many Catholics believe that the spirits of those who have passed on can still be present in the real-world. I interpret this holiday as an ethereal practice of remembrance, community, and love. Given the fact that I have not accurately celebrated this holiday despite my Mexican culture, I can appreciate the concept of acknowledging one’s passing instead of mourning them with a sad and downhearted connotation. Overall, I can see this holiday as a joyful practice where one’s spirituality is met, pronounced, and proven, given that many religious individuals feel deeply that the spirits of the deceased have the power to rejoin others in unity. Dia de los Muertos follows the ideology of being a cyclic holiday considering the cycle of one’s life, time, and season is evident and celebrated. Not to mention, the idea of post-productive life can be seen as the main emphasis of this holiday considering death is targeted as the means for festivity. A traditional practice that differs from the celebratory event of Dia de los Muertos is modernized funerals. Within American society, funerals are seen as disheartening events that are used to mourn those who have passed. Black clothes, tears, and white flowers within a traditional funeral are elements that can be contradicting to the colorful decorations, bright orange cempasuchil flowers, and the light-hearted picnics that take place during November 1-2.

Día de Muertos

Context:

F, 18, is a Mexican student at USC. He is from Ciudad Juarez, a city in Mexico that borders El Paso, Texas. F told me about the Mexican festival called Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead.

Text:

Every November 2nd, I celebrate with my family a popular Mexican tradition called “Día de Muertos”. This day is celebrated to remember the people that have passed away. We put together an altar in which we include pictures of the people we remember along with objects that reminds us of them. An example is that we put a picture of my grandfather and a book as he loved reading. This tradition helps us stay in touch with our loved ones and remember that they are with us every step of the way.

Analysis:

Día de Muertos is a traditional Mexican festival that happens yearly on November 2nd. It aligns with many other death-related celebrations such as All Souls Day or Halloween because of the life cycle calendar. Many cultures celebrate death around fall and winter, as they symbolize death and the end of a cycle. Then, in spring, the cycle starts anew and begins with fertility and birth celebrations. In this tradition, it is believed that the Day of the Dead is a liminal period in which the dead can visit their living relatives, this liminal period creates a space for magic and festivities that fit outside of the norm. In this traditional festival, people leave objects that the deceased enjoyed during their lifetime on the altar, so they can take joy in them once more.

Día de los Muertos

Text:

AG: “In the Mexican culture, they believe that our ancestors that have passed come back to the land of the living for two nights. We build ofrendas, which are little, a shrine is not the right word, but you put all their favorite foods, pictures of them. Alter is a more colloquial term. 

In our culture, we believe that people die three deaths. The first is when we physically die, when our bodies just stop working, our hearts stop, whatever. The second is when we’re lowered into the ground and buried, so we’re out of sight, or cremated, I guess. And the third one is when there’s no one left to remember us. There’s three deaths or three phases of death.

Usually, my parents put up an alter and we put up pictures of people who have passed in our family with a bunch of flowers, candles, because the candle represents their spirit, essentially. Sometimes we’ll go to, they have a cemetery, called Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and they put a bunch of marigolds up. They do a bunch of alters, ofrendas all over, and you can just visit and pay your respects, and just really reflecting on the lives of the people who have come before.”

Context:

AG is a 20-year-old Mexican-American college student from Los Angeles. She celebrates this holiday, which falls on the first two days of November, with her family every year. On this holiday, the living reunite with the spirits of their deceased ancestors. AG said that in comparison to melancholic death rituals like funerals, Dìa de los Muertos is a happy event which celebrates the people who passed away rather than mourning their deaths. She explained that according to Mexican belief, the first two deaths, physical death and burial, are inevitable. However, the third death, which she describes as “dying in the land of the dead” where individuals “fade into oblivion,” can be avoided by remembering individuals who passed away. Dìa de los Muertos functions to prevent this final death, as AG explained, “you preserve their memory through storytelling, through folklore, thereby keeping them alive through their spirits.” 

Analysis:

I find the Mexican folk belief in a realm between life and obsolescence very compelling. Many ideologies delineate life and death as two incompatible states of being which never intersect, so that once a person has passed away, the living have no way of accessing them. This boundary blurring view of life and death places power into the hands of the living, so that there are specific things that they can do and practices that they can carry out in order to come into contact with their lost loved ones again. This power of being able to reconnect with the dead comes with responsibilities, however, where one must continually honor and memorialize their loved one’s lives if they want to maintain this connection. The insistence upon keeping a person’s memory alive after their passing, which prevents the deceased from entering the third stage of death and disappearing, conveys how deeply one’s ancestry and elders are valued and respected in Mexican culture.

Dìa de los Muertos exemplifies the ritualization of liminality, where specific traditions and extraordinary practices are carried out at the time that the realm of the dead and the realm of the living overlap. That the holiday is comprised more of celebration than of mourning shows the comfort found in the belief that physical death doesn’t mean spiritual death.