El Dia de Muertos

It is not difficult to realise the importance of this day as you walk through the centre of Guadalajara.  On every corner there is a representation of Catrina.  The plazas are full of stalls selling special cakes, chocolate skulls, flowers, candles and alters. 

It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the first Spaniards tried unsuccessfully to eradicate. Now the ritual has been mixed with christian religious practices and has evolved to the present day celebration.  A ritual known today as Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

This is a very special ritual, since it is the day in which the living remember their departed relatives. Sometimes, when people of other cultures hear for the first time about the celebration of the Day of the Dead, they mistakenly think it must be: gruesome, terrifying, scary, ugly and sad. Nothing further from the truth, Day of the Dead is a beautiful ritual in which Mexicans happily and lovingly remember their loved relatives that have died. Every house makes an Ofrendas  (alter) are set up in the houses for their dead relatives. Generally ofrendas are set up on a table covered with a tablecloth and papel picado. They are decorated with sugar skulls, candles, cempasuchil (marigolds) flowers, and paper mache skeletons. Plates with the favorite foods of their dead relatives are also set on the ofrenda. Some have also liquor and cigarettes. On the ofrendas for the deceased children they place toys in addition to the food.

On 1st  November , there is a ceremony in honor of the Angelitos takes place in the cemetery.  The little angels or angelitos are the children that died and that could never experience the happiness and sorrows of adulthood. The celebration begins with a mass. After mass, the women and children go to the graveyard to clean and decorate the tombs. They bring with them flowers, bread and fruits in baskets covered with napkins that they embroidered themselves, as well as the copal, incense, that they will burn so that the aroma will help guide the returning souls. Each family brings with them in honor of their deceased relatives.

The ritual to honor the deceased children ends around nine in the morning.  Then in the evening at   at nightfall, the most impressive celebration will begin, the ritual in which the souls of the deceased adults are honored. Stages are set up for dancing and celebration.

At night, with everything ready, the dances begin. The Danza de los Viejitos, Dance of the Old Men, representative dance of this region. In pre-Hispanic times this dance was performed as a ritual honoring the Sun.
At midnight it is the graveyard is the place in which living and dead will reunite once again.

The bell at the entrance rings all night long, calling the souls to return and enjoy the splendid ceremony. The women and children who silently find the tombs of their relatives, on which they place the lovely embroidered napkins and set candles, the flowers and food that their dead so much enjoyed when alive.The essence of this beautiful ritual is to lovingly and happily remember the dead relatives, their life, and in this way, give meaning and continuity to human existence. It is a festival in which family celebrate the life of those who have left them with food, drink (from what I here quite a bit of this), dancing and singing.

I think that the Mexicans have this right!! It is a celebration of life, of those who have gone.  A very natural way to celebrate the flow of life.