When the Mexican Liberal Party led by Benito Juárez won the War of Reform in December 1860, the separation of church and state prevailed, but Día de Muertos remained a religious celebration for many in the rural heartland of Mexico. Honoring and communing with the dead continued throughout the turbulent 36 years that 50 governments ruled Mexico after it won its independence from Spain in 1821. Celebrating the Dead Becomes Part of a National Culture “When people are creating an altar, they are thinking about that person who is gone and thinking about their own mortality, to be strong, to accept it with dignity.”įamilies decorate a relative's grave with flowers at a cemetery in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacan State, Mexico on November 1, 2015. Andrade, a journalist and author of eight books about the Day of the Dead. “People are really dead when you forget about them, and if you think about them, they are alive in your mind, they are alive in your heart,” says Mary J. Bands perform and people dance to please the visiting souls. On the night of November 2, they take food to the cemetery to attract the spirits and to share in a community celebration. In Mexico, families clean the graves at cemeteries, preparing for the spirit to come. Some families also include a Christian crucifix or an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint in the altar. Altars include all four elements of life: water, the food for earth, the candle for fire, and for wind, papel picado, colorful tissue paper folk art with cut out designs to stream across the altar or the wall. Clay molded sugar skulls are painted and decorated with feathers, foil and icing, with the name of the deceased written across the foreheads. Offerings of tamales, chiles, water, tequila and pan de muerto, a specific bread for the occasion, are lined up by bright orange or yellow cempasúchil flowers, marigolds, whose strong scent helps guide the souls home.Ĭopal incense, used for ceremonies back in ancient times, is lit to draw in the spirits. Families read letters and poems and tell anecdotes and jokes about the dead. Candles light photos of the deceased and items left behind. In these ceremonies, people build altars in their homes with ofrendas, offerings to their loved ones’ souls.

Dia de las muertos