A Week Long Day of the Dead
You may have heard that el Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is a pretty important holiday in Mexico. Families and businesses set up elaborate altars to honor their deceased, the cemeteries become places where the living and the dead celebrate together, kids dress up in funny or spooky costumes, and most recently a parade through Mexico City has been added to the festivities. As you can guess, the holiday has outgrown its official one-day occasion, having become a combination of All Saints, All Souls and Halloween. However, according to a brief info-graphic shared by a friend of mine, the Mexican Day of the Dead has always been an elaborate affair, lasting for a whole week.
Observing Traditions, but the right way?
When I showed sequence to my wife, her reply was that even for Mexicans this would be too much. After all, her family never went into such detail, specifying which day to put wich item on the altar, symbolizing the various categories of invited deceased. But I thought, why not follow this outline, especially after I was reminded on October 26th that if we were going to set up an ofrenda we should do it in time, to give the dead a chance to arrive. And so we did, starting out with the first candle on October 28th.
The first candle is to be lit on October 28th, accompanied by a white flower, which is supposed to welcome the spirits who are alone. I am not certain what this is supposed to mean exactly. The souls of those who have died alone? Or maybe lived alone? Or just ended up alone in the spirit realm, for whatever reason? In any case, all aspects of this traditions were unfamiliar for my wife and her family. It just goes to show how diverse and extensive the Day of the Dead celebrations can be.
The following day it's time to light the second candle, as well as placing a glass of water on the altar. This is for the dead who were abandoned or forgotten. Hmmm... So there is a difference between spirits who are alone and the ones who are abandoned? The forgotten part, however, makes sense. After all, along with those loved ones we honor and remember there must be deceased family members who we may have forgotten. Of course we don't know who, since we've forgotten about them. But with this glass of water they are also included in the celebrations. - Still, this tradition is hasn't been practiced by my wife's family, but this year we included it on our altar.
On the third day, October 30th, we also place a piece of bread on the altar to feed those souls who died hungry or (most likely AND) in an accident. While my wife doesn't have any loved ones who died in an accident, my godfather died in a car crash, so I was happy to offer him some food. The bread of choice was of course the so called pan de muerto, an excessively sweet bread, made specifically for this holiday. I don't eat it, but if the dead like it, they should have it.
October 31st, or Halloween, is the day to invite all our ancestors, particularly those we never got to know. This is where the numbers increase exponentially the further we go back in time, until we reach a point where we are related to the entire world population... According to the info these forefathers (and fore-mothers) are invited by placing a piece of fruit on the altar. Bananas, tangerines, or guavas are typical choices, but anything goes, really, including pieces of sugar cane.
Finally on November 1st the actual All Saints celebrations can start. This is the day to commemorate the dead children, that is, those people who died before reaching adulthood. In our cases we don't have any family members who had died that young, at least not that we know. However, there are bound to be children among the ones we invited the previous days, meaning the forgotten and unknown ones. So we placed some food on the altar, particularly candy, which all children love. For the Day of the Dead these sweets come in form of skulls, coffins, and other similar shapes. According to my wife, it was still not as much food as what her family typically placed on their altar.
The festivities reach their height on November 2nd, or All Souls, which is the part of the Day of the Dead when everyone is invited, including the dead adults. To please them, we added cigarettes on the altar, along with a small bottle of Tequila, as well as small glass of beer. Salud! By the way, the image of the tequila bottle is misplaced on the previous image, as it clearly is not meant for children, whether alive or dead.
The celebration is finally over on November 3rd, when a final candle is lit to say goodbye to all the dead visitors, and the altar is taken down until next year. My wife, who happens to have her birthday on this day, said that her family never lit a candle for the dead on this day, since the Day of the Dead was officially over. Instead, it was her birthday cake that had candles on it, lit for a completely different purpose. Never mind, this year we just lit a last candle, for just a minute, and then put all our offerings away.