Los
Dias de los Muertos
The History of the blending of Ancient Cultures
More than 500
years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now
Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed
to mock death.
It was a ritual
the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years.
A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate.
A ritual known
today as Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This holiday is a perfect example of the complex heritage of the Mexican
people. The beliefs of today's Mexican are based on the complicated blended
cultures of his ancestors, the Aztec and Maya and Spanish invaders, layered with
Catholicism. The origins of the Days of the Dead reach into the ancient history
of Europe and Mexico. In the eighth century, the church decreed November 1 as
All Saints Day. Setting aside the day to honor the martyrs and saints was an
attempt to replace the 2000-year tradition of the Celts and their Druid priests
who combined harvest festivals and celebrated the new year on November 1.
The Celtic dead were believed to have access to earth on
Samhain, October
31st, when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead relaxed.
The Celts danced around huge bonfires, wearing animal heads and hides to confuse
the spirits and burned crops and animals as offerings to the returning dead.
Around the end of the first millennium, the church reinforced its attempt to
cover the Celtic celebration by designating November 2 as All Souls' Day to
honor the dead. All Souls' Day was celebrated with parades, big bonfires and the
people dressed as saints, angels and devils.
In the language of the day, All Saints Day and All Souls' Day were known as
All-hallowsmas, and October 31 was "All Hallowed's Eve" or Hallow'e'en.
When the Spaniards arrived in Mexico they encountered two-month celebrations
honoring death, the fall harvest and the new year. For more than 500 years, the
goddess Mictecacihuatl (Lady of the Dead) presided over Aztec harvest rituals
using fires and incense, costumes of animal skins, images of their dead and
offerings of ceramics, personal goods, flowers and foods, drink and flowers.
The Aztecs and other Meso-American
civilizations kept skulls as trophies and displayed them during the ritual. The
skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth. The skulls were used to honor
the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came
back to visit during the monthlong ritual. Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed
death as the end of life, the natives viewed it as the continuation of life.
Instead of fearing death, they embraced it. To them, life was a dream and only
in death did they become truly awake.
However, the Spaniards
considered the ritual to be sacrilegious. They perceived the indigenous people
to be barbaric and pagan. In their attempts to convert them to Catholicism, the
Spaniards tried to kill the ritual. But like the old Aztec spirits, the ritual
refused to die. To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it
coincided with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when
it is celebrated today. Previously it fell on the ninth month of the Aztec Solar
Calendar, approximately the beginning of August, and was celebrated for the
entire month. Festivities were presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The
goddess, known as "Lady of the Dead," was believed to have died at
birth.
The church thus attempted to transform the joyous celebration to a suitably
tragic image of death and a serious day of prayer focusing attention and
reflection on the saints and martyrs. The people of Mexico did not fully adopt
the early priests' ideas, and by keeping their familiar ceremonies, All Saint's
Day and All Soul's Day evolved into the celebrations that today honor the dead
with color, candles, joy.