Traditions

This ancient holiday began as a day of thanks for the harvest. Over time, it became a time to remember the ancestors and beloved ones who have died. The Mexican celebration of el Dia de los Muertos occurs on November 1 (All Saints' Day) and November 2 (All Souls' Day).

On day before the holiday, relatives spend the day cooking the dear departed ones' favorite foods. They put flowers in graveyards and create an altar in the home. These altars are not places of worship--instead, they serve the same purpose as a scrapbook or a photo album. Pictures of the departed are displayed, along with favorite objects and other mementos.

On the first day, families have big celebrations at their homes. They serve the food they made the day before and eat bread and candies shaped like skeletons. Friends stop by, and people dance and sing.

On the second day, the holiday expands to the town. There may be parades and floats and costumed characters. Coffins are carried containing people dressed in skeleton outfits.

Many customs and traditions have been added over the years, but for the most part, this ancient holiday is as it always was -- a time of remembrance and love. There's no need to be afraid of the Day of the Dead. This is a happy holiday!

Preparing the Altar

Even families with very limited budgets spare no expense when preparing the altar to honor their family. They want their spirits to enjoy the offerings and to return each year to continue this special spiritual companionship. The altar is prepared using a table to form a pyramid of three or more levels, and then a tablecloth covers it all. Four candles are placed on the top level to represent the cardinal directions. A candle is lit for each dead family member and one extra so that no one is left out. The candles, which represent hope and faith, burn during the night, so that there is no darkness.

Copal is the resinous sap of a Mexican tree, burned as incense since the time of the Aztecs as an offering to the gods. On the Day of the Dead altar, the scent attracts spirits, drawing them home. It is also used to cleanse the area, and to ward off evil.

While most altars are laden with the favorite foods, sweets, drinks, and harvest fruits of each family spirit, even the most basic altar includes these basic needs:

* WATER to quench the thirst and for purification
* SALT to season the food and for purification
* BREAD to represent the food needed for survival

Tissue paper is commonly used to represent wind. Papel picado (cut paper) is cut into intricate designs and strung to flutter over around the altar. This custom comes from the Aztecs, who used paper banners in rituals.

Flowers, symbolizing the brevity of life, are massed and fashioned into garlands, wreaths and crosses to decorate the altar and the grave. The marigold is the most traditional flower of the season. In Aztec times it was called the cempasuchil, the flower of 400 lives. The fragrance of the cempasuchil leads the spirits home.

Personal items of the spirits remembered, the child's toys, household saints, photos of those honored are added to the altar, along with the tools and utensils used each day, serapes, guitars or drums, gourds for carrying water and cigars or cigarettes.

The hand-crafted skeletons (calaveras) are funny and friendly rather than frightening or spooky. They represent the beloved dead ones, their occupations and hobbies

The Mexican flatters and woos death, he sings to her, dances with her, lifts his glass to her, he laughs at her. Finally, he challenges her, and in the challenging, death loses her power to intimidate him. Once he knows death intimately, death is no longer wrapped in a cloak of mystery or a reason to fear the darkness.

Text by Frederick Zal and Veronica Guzman