tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/day-of-the-dead-13284/articles
Day of the Dead – The Conversation
2023-10-30T12:31:33Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212686
2023-10-30T12:31:33Z
2023-10-30T12:31:33Z
Day of the Dead is taking on Halloween traditions, but the sacred holiday is far more than a ‘Mexican Halloween’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555836/original/file-20231025-23-f7706p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C7928%2C5297&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children trick or treat and wear Halloween costumes for a full week during Day of the Dead season in Mexico.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/portrait-of-boy-with-sugar-skull-face-paint-during-royalty-free-image/1653069265?phrase=mexico+day+of+the+dead+people&adppopup=true">FG Trade Latin/Collection E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Latinos regularly declare: “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/31/day-dead-halloween-dia-de-muertos/">Día de los Muertos is not Mexican Halloween</a>.” The declaration is increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/strictly-not-halloween-why-day-of-the-dead-is-misunderstood-and-why-that-matters-192476">repeated by non-Latinos too</a>. </p>
<p>Drawing a clear line between the two holidays is a rhetorical strategy to protect Day of the Dead’s integrity as Mexican cultural heritage and separate it from American popular culture. However, as a Mexican-American who celebrates Día de los Muertos and <a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/2740395">as a scholar of culture and performance</a>, I believe it’s time to fully acknowledge the cultural intermixing that’s happening between the two holidays. </p>
<p>Halloween’s influence is transforming Día de los Muertos into a hybrid cultural tradition that simultaneously honors the dead and celebrates the macabre.</p>
<h2>The origins of the distinction</h2>
<p>Día de los Muertos is a traditional fiesta in honor of the deceased that is celebrated in Mexico and other parts of Latin America on Nov. 1 and 2. The holiday is celebrated though ritual observations like constructing altars filled with offerings to the dead and decorating family gravesites to commune with the dead. Day of the Dead is also commemorated through vivacious fiestas in which communities gather in town plazas and community centers to celebrate by dancing, playing music, feasting, drinking and masquerading as death.</p>
<p>Although Day of the Dead is a long-standing tradition in Mexico, the holiday wasn’t celebrated widely or publicly among Latinos in the U.S. That changed in the 1970s and 1980s when <a href="https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.126.501.0272">artists and activists introduced Day of the Dead</a> to their communities as part of the Chicano movement, the social and cultural movement for Mexican-American empowerment.</p>
<p>As Latinos began celebrating the holiday proudly and publicly in the U.S., they also began <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hj96w?typeAccessWorkflow=login">distinguishing it from Halloween</a>. That’s because many non-Latinos mistakenly interpreted Day of the Dead’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961597763/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_9?smid=A18OZMH8UQINVM&psc=1">skull and skeleton imagery as witchcraft</a>. Latinos used the phrase “Día de los Muertos is not Mexican Halloween” to protect the holiday from misrepresentation, <a href="https://www.selfhelpgraphics.com/gifts/dia-de-los-muertos-a-cultural-legacy-past-present-and-futurecatalogue">educate the broader public about the cultural tradition</a> and shield themselves from discrimination.</p>
<p>The declaration was also used in the 1970s and 1980s by Mexico’s tourism industry when it began vigorously promoting Day of the Dead internationally <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Skulls+to+the+Living%2C+Bread+to+the+Dead%3A+The+Day+of+the+Dead+in+Mexico+and+Beyond-p-9781405152488">as a cultural attraction</a>. Tourists arriving in Mexico were informed that Día de los Muertos was an authentic national holiday that bore no relation to Halloween.</p>
<h2>The 1990s and 2000s</h2>
<p>In the 1990s, “Día de los Muertos is not Mexican Halloween” became a political statement. The North American Free Trade Agreement, signed in 1994, flooded Mexico with <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292751996/">U.S. consumer goods, media and popular culture</a>. Halloween’s importation was seen by some Mexicans as <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/541045">a symbol of U.S. “cultural imperialism</a>,” the process by which the United States uses culture to maintain political and economic domination over Mexico. </p>
<p>But by the early 2000s, Mexican, U.S. and British anthropologists reported that Halloween was already fusing with Día de los Muertos <a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/Digging_the_Days_of_the_Dead.html?id=qZUMAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y">in fascinating ways</a>. Halloween candy, costumes and ornaments appeared in stores and street markets, where it was displayed next to Day of the Dead material. Jack-o-lantern and spider-web decorations adorned ofrendas, the traditional altars erected for the dead. The streets were increasingly filled with trick-or-treating children dressed as witches, vampires and monsters. <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/days-of-death-days-of-life/9780231136884">Bars and nightclubs in southern Mexico hosted</a> Halloween and Day of the Dead costume parties for adults. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/The_Skeleton_at_the_Feast.html?id=6aMMAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y">Some Mexicans denounced</a> Halloween as “an invasion.” Some referred to Halloween as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/02/world/the-day-of-the-ghouls-vs-the-day-of-the-dead.html">cultural pollution</a>.”</p>
<p>Such fears led the United Nations in 2003 to officially designate Día de los Muertos a form of “<a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/indigenous-festivity-dedicated-to-the-dead-00054">intangible cultural heritage</a>,” a classification reserved for cultural traditions like rituals, oral traditions and performing arts that are <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/01851-EN.pdf">endangered by globalization or lack of support</a>. This gave the United Nations authority to work with the Mexican government to “protect and conserve” Day of the Dead, which would presumably safeguard the holiday from influences like Halloween. But it was too late. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl hits pinata at a celebration in Mexico." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555840/original/file-20231025-27-5cxl3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Día de los Muertos celebrations in Mexico are adapting and fusing with Halloween in interesting ways.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-hitting-pi%C3%B1ata-during-a-day-of-the-death-royalty-free-image/1653070912?phrase=day+of+the+dead&adppopup=true">FG Trade Latin/ Collection E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hollywood’s influence</h2>
<p>Today, Halloween haunts Día de Los Muertos in Mexico like never before. Children trick or treat in costume for a full week during Day of the Dead season. They beg for candy from shops and restaurants by crying “Queremos Halloween!” – literally meaning, “We want Halloween!” On Nov. 2 at the country’s largest cemetery, Panteón de Dolores, you’ll find graveyard ofrendas decorated with cobwebs, vampires, witches and pumpkins.</p>
<p>The fusion of Halloween and Day of the Dead is largely facilitated by Hollywood. A prime example is the celebration at the famous Panteón de San Fernando, a cemetery where the remains of some of Mexico’s most important presidents and dignitaries are buried. As part of holiday festivities, the cemetery hosts a screening of the horror classic “Night of the Living Dead.” Hundreds dressed in Day of the Dead attire gather at the tomb of President Benito Juárez, eating candy while watching zombies terrorize a small American community. </p>
<p>The impact of Halloween’s horror movie influence is most noticeable at the country’s largest Día de los Muertos celebration. The Gran Desfile de Día de Muertos, or the Great Day of the Dead parade, which began in 2016 as a simulation of the one depicted in the James Bond movie “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/mexico-city-day-of-the-day-parade/index.html">Spectre</a>,” annually attracts more than a million attendees.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hollywood horror movie images at Day of the Dead festivity in Mexico City." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556388/original/file-20231028-21-7as67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dia de los Muertos festivities in Mexico City feature Hollywood horror movie images and costumes typically reserved for Halloween.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mathew Sandoval photo</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to sugar skull makeup and skeleton attire, participants also don Hollywood horror costumes typically reserved for Halloween. You’ll find people dressed as Jigsaw from the “Saw” movies, Chucky from “Child’s Play,” Ghostface from the “Scream” series and Pennywise from Stephen King’s “It.”</p>
<p>By far the most popular costume in 2022 was Michael Myers from “Halloween.” This is hardly surprising. The franchise’s most recent installment, “<a href="https://www.miramax.com/movie/halloween-ends/">Halloween Ends</a>,” was huge in Mexico. When the film was released in Mexico during Day of the Dead and Halloween season, it was one of the <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2346943233/weekend/">highest-grossing movies in the country</a>. In fact, of the 70 counties where the film was released, Mexico had the <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt10665342/">third-highest ticket sales</a>. </p>
<h2>Characters from Disney at celebrations</h2>
<p>In particular, Disney’s influence on both Halloween and Día de los Muertos is immense. The number of children and adults costumed as Darth Vader, Spiderman or Jasmine and Aladdin at Day of the Dead celebrations is bewildering. </p>
<p>And they’re not just at the festive events like the Gran Desfile de Muertos, either. They’re at the ritual ceremonies, too. One can find all manner of Avenger superheroes at the Panteón de Dolores gathered graveside and making offerings to the dead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People in costumes dancing with characters inspired by Disney and Pixar's Coco." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555843/original/file-20231025-25-idhk45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Disney California Adventure Park celebrating Día de los Muertos in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-handout-photo-provided-by-disneyland-resorts-plaza-news-photo/1233876227?adppopup=true">Joshua Sudock/Handout/Disneyland Resort via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there’s the dilemma posed by Disney-Pixar’s “Coco,” the beloved animated film about Día de los Muertos. Similar to every Disney entity, companies license and manufacture <a href="https://www.halloweencostumes.com/coco-costumes.html">Halloween costumes</a> based on characters from the movie. </p>
<p>These costumes are now popular in Mexico, where people dress up as characters from “Coco.” But when they masquerade as the skull-faced Miguel, Ernesto de la Cruz or Mama Imelda, it’s hard to say whether they’re wearing a Halloween costume or a Día de los Muertos costume. I’d venture to say that it’s both simultaneously.</p>
<p>And therein lies the crisis of identity currently facing Mexico’s Day of the Dead. The influence of Hollywood is making it more and more difficult to credibly say “Día de los Muertos is not a Mexican Halloween.”</p>
<h2>What’s next for Day of the Dead</h2>
<p>The fusion between the two holidays is happening in rural and urban areas, and in the borderlands and deeper parts of Mexico. It’s altering Day of the Dead’s popular festive qualities and its ceremonial customs.</p>
<p>Cultural conservatives will no doubt bemoan this as “pollution” of a sacred tradition. But they forget that transformation and adaptation are what ensure any tradition’s survival. Día de los Muertos may live eternally, but it’ll be thanks to the vampire bite of Halloween.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Sandoval does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Halloween’s influence is transforming popular festivities around Día de los Muertos and its ceremonial customs in rural and urban areas of Mexico in some fascinating ways.
Mathew Sandoval, Associate Teaching Professor in Culture & Performance, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212687
2023-10-24T12:22:19Z
2023-10-24T12:22:19Z
How ‘La Catrina’ became the iconic symbol of Day of the Dead
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552390/original/file-20231005-24-skza08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=191%2C191%2C5051%2C3450&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A girl dressed as a 'catrina' takes part in the Catrinas Parade in Mexico City to celebrate Day of the Dead.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-dressed-as-catrina-walks-while-taking-part-in-the-news-photo/617638204?adppopup=true">Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On April 13, 1944, thousands of people clashed with police on the steps of <a href="https://www.artic.edu/about-us/mission-and-history/history">the Art Institute of Chicago</a>. </p>
<p>The melee was unrelated to U.S. participation in World War II, labor unrest or President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-seizes-control-of-montgomery-ward">controversial move to seize control</a> of local Chicago industries. </p>
<p>Rather, a massive, impatient art crowd overwhelmed the museum’s capacity, causing mayhem. That’s how desperately people wanted to see the U.S. premiere of an exhibition titled “Posada: Printmaker to the Mexican People.”</p>
<p>The exhibition featured the prints of <a href="https://www.posada-art-foundation.com/about-posada">José Guadalupe Posada</a>, a Mexican engraver who had died in 1913. On display were his calaveras, the satirical skull and skeleton illustrations he made for Day of the Dead, which he printed on cheap, single-sheet newspapers known as broadsides.</p>
<p>One specific calavera, or skull, attracted more attention than the others. </p>
<p>Known as La Catrina, she was a garish skeleton with a wide, toothy grin and an oversized feathered hat. A large print of her <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/8528/gallery-of-art-interpretation-who-is-posada">hung on the museum’s wall</a>. Audiences saw her featured in the museum’s promotional materials. She was even the cover girl of <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/8526/the-art-of-jose-guadalupe-posada-lent-by-the-department-of-fine-arts-of-mexico">the exhibition catalog</a>. Back in Mexico she’d been virtually unknown, but the U.S. exhibition made La Catrina an international sensation.</p>
<p>Today, La Catrina is Posada’s most recognizable creation. She’s the icon of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/top-ten-day-of-dead-mexico">Day of the Dead</a>, Mexico’s annual fiesta in honor of the deceased that takes place annually on Nov. 1 and 2. Her visage is endlessly reproduced during the holiday. Her idolization has made her Mexico’s unofficial national totem, perhaps second only to <a href="https://theconversation.com/warrior-servant-mother-unifier-the-virgin-mary-has-played-many-roles-through-the-centuries-165596">the Virgin of Guadalupe</a>. </p>
<p>While some people might presume it’s always been this way, La Catrina is actually a transcultural icon whose prestige and popularity are equal parts invention and accident.</p>
<h2>A life of obscurity</h2>
<p>When Posada first engraved her <a href="https://www.posada-art-foundation.com/posada-lacatrina">in 1912</a>, she wasn’t even called La Catrina. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Peach colored program cover featuring a print of a skeleton wearing a lavish hat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552387/original/file-20231005-19-nq4t90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The catalog cover for ‘Posada,’ a 1944 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, features what came to be known as La Catrina.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/8526/the-art-of-jose-guadalupe-posada-lent-by-the-department-of-fine-arts-of-mexico">The Art Institute of Chicago</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the original print, she’s Calavera Garbancera, a <a href="https://glasstire.com/2019/11/02/jose-guadalupe-posada-and-diego-rivera-fashion-catrina-from-sellout-to-national-icon-and-back-again/">title used</a> to refer to indigenous peasant women who sold garbanzo beans at the street markets.</p>
<p>Posada illustrated her in ostentatious attire to satirize the way the garbanceras attempted to pass as upper-class by powdering their faces and wearing fashionable French attire. So even from the beginning, La Catrina was transcultural – a rural indigenous woman adopting European customs to survive in Mexico’s urban, mixed-race society.</p>
<p>Like Posada’s other illustrations, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1360573">the 1912 broadside</a> was sold for a penny to primarily poor and working-class men throughout Mexico City and nearby areas. But there was nothing particularly significant about Calavera Garbancera. Like her creator, she remained obscure for many years.</p>
<p>Posada died <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Guadalupe-Mexican-Broadside-Institute-Chicago/dp/0300121377">broke and unknown</a>, but his illustrations <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/9780826319043/posadas-broadsheets/">had an afterlife</a>. His publisher reused them for other broadsides well into the 1920s. Calavera Garbancera got recycled as various other characters, none particularly noteworthy. Meanwhile, nobody really knew who made the calavera broadsides they saw around the capital every Day of the Dead.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Printed broadsheet featuring text and a drawing of a skeleton wearing a big hat on green paper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555055/original/file-20231020-29-n6mh1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Revolutionary Calavera,’ by José Guadalupe Posada, printed on a broadside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/revolutionary-calavera-c-1910-creator-josé-guadalupe-posada-news-photo/1447192444?adppopup=true">Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That changed in the mid-1920s when Posada’s work drew the attention of French artist Jean Charlot, a leading figure in the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Mexican_Mural_Renaissance_1920_1925.html?id=_g9ZAAAAMAAJ">Mexican Renaissance</a>, that creative outburst of nationalist murals and artworks that transpired in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution.</p>
<p>Charlot was enamored of the calavera illustrations he saw around Mexico City, but he didn’t know who created them. He eventually tracked down Posada’s publisher and began researching the engraver. Charlot <a href="https://icaa.mfah.org/s/en/item/779806#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1673%2C0%2C5895%2C3299">published articles</a> about Posada and introduced the artist’s calaveras to other Mexican Renaissance artists and intellectuals. Among the most important were painter <a href="https://www.diegorivera.org/">Diego Rivera</a> and critic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1956/06/18/archives/frances-toor-66-wrote-on-mexico-author-of-books-on-folkways-and-of.html">Frances Toor</a>.</p>
<h2>From La Garbancera to La Catrina</h2>
<p>Rivera, of course, is arguably the greatest artist in Mexican history. <a href="https://theconversation.com/detroit-1932-when-diego-rivera-and-frida-kahlo-came-to-town-38884">His epic murals</a> remain internationally famous. </p>
<p>Frances Toor, on the other hand, was a modest Jewish intellectual who made her career writing about Mexican culture. In 1925 she started publishing <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43466157">Mexican Folkways</a>, a popular bilingual magazine distributed in Mexico and the U.S. With Diego Rivera as her art editor, she started using the magazine to promote Posada. In annual October-November issues, Toor and Rivera featured large reprints of Posada’s calaveras. </p>
<p>However, Calavera Garbancera was never among them. She wasn’t important enough to showcase.</p>
<p>In 1930, Toor and Rivera published <a href="https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/343276">the first book</a> of Posada’s engravings, which sold throughout Mexico and the U.S. In it, La Garbancera finally made an appearance. But she had a new name – Calavera Catrina. For reasons unknown, Toor and Rivera chose the honorific, which referred to her as a female dandy. The calavera was forevermore La Catrina.</p>
<p>Her fame, however, didn’t truly arrive until Posada’s riotous debut at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1944. The exhibition was a collaboration between the museum and the Mexican government. It was funded and facilitated by a special White House propaganda agency that used <a href="https://www.academia.edu/29923182/Jos%C3%A9_Guadalupe_Posada_Art_Institute_of_Chicago_1944_pdf?email_work_card=view-paper">cultural diplomacy</a> to fortify solidarity with Latin America during World War II. </p>
<p>This boosterism allowed the Posada exhibition to tour and give La Catrina wider exposure. She was seen and promoted in New York, Philadelphia, Mexico City and elsewhere in Mexico.</p>
<p>Perhaps more important was the exhibition catalog, which featured La Catrina as cover girl. It sold at each tour location. <a href="https://www.artic.edu/institutional-archives">Complimentary copies</a> were also distributed to prominent U.S. and Mexican authors and artists. They started writing about La Catrina and refashioning her in their artworks, popularizing her on both sides of the border.</p>
<h2>La Catrina goes global</h2>
<p>In 1947, Diego Rivera further immortalized La Catrina when he made her the focal point of one of his most famous murals, “<a href="https://www.diegorivera.org/dream-of-a-sunday-afternoon-in-alameda-park.jsp">Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park</a>.” </p>
<p>The mural portrays Mexican history from the Spanish conquest to the Mexican Revolution. La Catrina stands at the literal center of this history, where Rivera painted her holding hands with Posada on one side and a boyhood version of himself on the other.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting of an elegantly dressed skeleton holding hands with a boy and a man wearing hats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552394/original/file-20231005-27-ruxzoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A detail of Diego Rivera’s mural ‘Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park,’ which hangs at the Diego Rivera Mural Museum in Mexico City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicksherman/4080802657">Nick Sherman/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rivera’s fame – and La Catrina’s newfound gravitas – inspired Mexican and Mexican American artists to incorporate her into their works, too. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/El_D%C3%ADa_de_Los_Muertos.html?id=BTNQAAAAMAAJ">Folk artists</a> in Mexico began fashioning her into ceramic toys, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/En_Calavera.html?id=3mJQAAAAMAAJ">papier-mâché figurines</a> and other crafts sold during Day of the Dead. Mexican Americans utilized La Catrina in their murals, paintings and political posters as part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-chicana-women-artists-have-often-used-the-figure-of-the-virgin-of-guadalupe-for-political-messages-213720">Chicano Movement</a>, which pushed for Mexican American civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Extravagent costume featuring a headdress, skull mask and red and black cloak." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555067/original/file-20231020-19-y4bgms.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each year, Los Angeles native Christina Sanchez dresses as ‘Catrina Christina’ for Day of the Dead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mars Sandoval</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>La Catrina’s image is now used to sell anything <a href="https://tee-luv.com/products/victoria-beer-mexican-la-catrina-t-shirt-black">from beer</a> to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/01/us/day-of-the-dead-barbie-cultural-appropriation-trnd/index.html">Barbie dolls</a>. You can order La Catrina costumes from <a href="https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/catrina-costume">Walmart</a> and <a href="https://www.spirithalloween.com/product/adult-la-catrina-day-of-the-dead-trumpet-dress-costume/175819.uts">Spirit Halloween</a> stores.</p>
<p>In fact, La Catrina costume parades and contests are a relatively new Day of the Dead tradition in Mexico and the U.S. Participants span race, ethnicity and nationality. </p>
<p>Some people, such as “<a href="https://shoutoutla.com/meet-christina-sanchez-catrina-christina/">Catrina Christina</a>” in Los Angeles, don a costume each year as a way to honor the dearly departed on Día de los Muertos. Others dress as La Catrina to grow their <a href="https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2021/11/02/content-creators-use-their-platforms-to-celebrate-dia-de-los-muertos/">social media following</a>, or impersonate her to make money.</p>
<p>Posada probably never expected his female calavera to become so famous. He merely wanted to use traditional Day of the Dead humor to make fun of the flamboyantly dressed garbanceras he saw hanging around Mexico City’s central plaza. </p>
<p>Today, during Día de los Muertos, that same central plaza is filled with hundreds of La Catrina impersonators who, for a few dollars, will pose for photographs with tourists all too willing to pay for such a “traditional” cultural experience with an “authentic” Day of the Dead icon. </p>
<p>Posada, meanwhile, is likely laughing somewhere in the land of the dead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212687/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Sandoval does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
An obscure Mexican engraver named José Guadalupe Posada created the satirical skull in the early 1900s and sold it for a penny. But after he died, it took on a life of its own.
Mathew Sandoval, Associate Teaching Professor in Culture & Performance, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192476
2022-11-01T17:13:53Z
2022-11-01T17:13:53Z
Strictly not Halloween: why Day of the Dead is misunderstood – and why that matters
<p>Known in Spanish as <em>Día de Muertos</em>, Day of the Dead is commonly celebrated every year on November 1 and 2. Although the ritual “belongs” to Mexico, it is in fact a global phenomenon celebrated across Latin America, the US, Europe, Asia and Africa by migrant Mexican communities.</p>
<p>With its <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/resource-library-mesoamerica/#:%7E:text=The%20historic%20region%20of%20Mesoamerica,%2C%20Toltec%2C%20and%20Aztec%20peoples.">Mesoamerican</a>, Roman Catholic and pagan roots, this deeply religious celebration sees families gather annually to honour and commemorate their loved ones. They build altars and parade the streets dressed as skeletons or <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2019/10/la-catrina-dark-history-day-deads-immortal-icon">Catrinas</a> – the “grand lady of the afterlife” – and bake sugar skulls and “bread of the dead”.</p>
<p>But the Day of the Dead is commonly misunderstood in some countries, including the UK, where the perception is that this highly important ritual is simply a Mexican <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/day-of-the-dead">version of Halloween</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three women dressed in colourful Day of the Dead costumes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492607/original/file-20221031-25-vgg4ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492607/original/file-20221031-25-vgg4ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492607/original/file-20221031-25-vgg4ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492607/original/file-20221031-25-vgg4ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492607/original/file-20221031-25-vgg4ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492607/original/file-20221031-25-vgg4ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492607/original/file-20221031-25-vgg4ca.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elisa Ponce, founder of Mexicans in Bournemouth, left, taking part in a Day of the Dead event in the town.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jane Lavery</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My work looks at the way Day of the Dead is viewed and consumed in the UK and Ireland, and how Mexican communities celebrate their customs there. The UK has a Mexican community of around 10,000 people and although not all participate, many will celebrate Day of the Dead from Fife and Dublin, to London and Southampton, as an important way of connecting with each other, and Mexico. The event is a valuable way for Mexicans to foster pride in their cultural heritage, celebrate difference and inclusivity – and showcase how the festivity is <em>not</em> a Mexican Halloween. </p>
<p>In Bournemouth for example, the Mexican community has organised public street events welcoming the wider community by building community altars, offering delicious orange blossom “bread of the dead” and by dancing special folkloric Day of the Dead dances.</p>
<p>Elisa Ponce, founder of the Mexicans in Bournemouth community, and co-founder of the folkloric dance group Colores Mexicanos, which is comprised of Mexican and Latin American women, mothers and daughters, sees their local Day of the Dead celebrations as vital for community cultural pride:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We were so proud to hear the excitement of the passers-by, the conversations about death, suffering and sadness becoming happiness and colours. Just like in Mexico.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such events create a sense of belonging by passing down cultural heritage from one generation to the next, and raising awareness in the broader public.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lTHZR1bRdao?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The ‘Halloweenisation’ of a Mexican custom</h2>
<p>As my previous <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24741604.2021.1890432?scroll=top&needAccess=true">research</a> shows, interest in all things Mexican has been growing steadily in the UK due to tourism, the media and Day of the Dead events organised by Mexican communities in Britain. </p>
<p>Even though many British people are aware that Day of the Dead is not a Mexican Halloween, the so-called “Halloweenisation” of the practice is still widespread. The two may share similar Catholic origins, but the former has lost its religious roots and is now merely a commercialised phenomenon. </p>
<p>Besides retailers and the media, Day of the Dead’s Halloweenisation has been fuelled by Hollywood movies such as Bond film <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/21/spectre-review-james-bond-is-back-stylish-camp-and-sexily-pro-snowden">Spectre</a> (2015) with its Day of the Dead parade, and, to a point, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/18/coco-review-pixar-land-of-the-dead-animation">Coco</a> (2018) the Pixar animation about a young Mexican boy who ends up in the land of the dead.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Pf6-oHJzXI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>The festival has undergone a worldwide cultural transformation due to globalisation and the internet-based world we live in, which can have a <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-83909-976-220211003/full/html">bulldozing effect</a> on individual cultures. This has led to Day of the Dead becoming divested of its local roots and religious meanings, and turned into an object of mass consumerism.</p>
<p>During Halloween, Day of the Dead costumes and accessories have become an increasingly familiar sight in UK shops. With their striking colourful patterns and iconography, it is not difficult to understand the attraction. With British retailers selling Halloween costumes and decorations interchangeably with Day of the Dead items, it’s no wonder that the public may perceive the Mexican practice as simply an extension of Halloween. </p>
<h2>Strictly confusing</h2>
<p>Still, this Halloweenisation of the Day of the Dead has resulted in fierce debates about whether this is cultural appropriation, capturing polarised opinions spanning allegations of offensive misappropriation to celebrations of cultural fusion.</p>
<p>Nowhere is this response better exemplified than when the Mexican celebration was appropriated by the ever-popular BBC dancing programme, Strictly Come Dancing. In 2018 its Halloween episode featured a colourful <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=559969851083442">Day of the Dead-themed opening dance</a> performance with mariachi singers, sombreros, papier mâche skeletons and dancers donning sexy Catrina dresses and alluring skeleton make-up.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1056251275145342977"}"></div></p>
<p>A row followed, with the media picking up on the mixed responses to the controversial performance. The Huffington Post for example <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/strictly-come-dancings-day-of-the-dead-inspired-opening-dance-accused-of-cultural-appropriation_uk_5bd592f7e4b0a8f17ef8993f">reported</a> the performance being blasted for cultural appropriation and featured several tweets from unhappy viewers who found it “racist” and “offensive”. </p>
<p>But others praised the show’s celebration of cultural heritage and its fusion of Halloween, Day of the Dead and the movie Coco, with some drawing delighted comparisons with the popular film that has given prominence to Day of the Dead.
Such comparisons suggest that some believe the ritual is based on a film rather than a Mexican religious practice, fuelling further misconceptions of Day of the Dead as “another Halloween”.</p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>With the Mexican community in the UK playing an important role in contributing to the local economy, culture and society, more visibility is needed of the Day of the Dead celebration to break with unhelpful racial stereotypes and issues around mislabelling.</p>
<p>This lack of visibility could be addressed by encouraging retailers to rethink how they sell and brand their items. Local councils could promote and fund Day of the Dead events to the wider community by including them in their post-COVID social and cultural regeneration strategies. And schools could do more to teach children about what the practice is actually about – and why it’s not an extension of Halloween but something culturally distinct underpinned by its own religious history, meaning and rituals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Lavery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Far from an extension of our secular Halloween, this Mexican celebration is a deeply religious custom with its own rituals, folklore and history.
Jane Lavery, Lecturer In Hispanic Studies, University of Southampton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169087
2021-10-31T19:05:14Z
2021-10-31T19:05:14Z
Memory lives on: celebrating the Day of the Dead in the pandemic age
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429222/original/file-20211028-5716-vv2zar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5563%2C2957&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many lives have been lost to the virus, celebrating a “day of the dead” might seem strange, even tactless. But despite the morbid associations of its name, the Day of the Dead is actually a time to be reminded of the beauty of life, rather than just the inevitability of death.</p>
<p>Part of an important season for most Christians that begins at the end of October, the day sits within the celebration of <a href="https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/10/24/the-season-of-the-dead-the-origins-and-practice-of-allhallowtide/">Allhallowtide</a>. This three-day period comprises All Hallows’ Eve on October 31, All Saints’ Day on November 1, and All Souls’ Day on November 2.</p>
<p>The last one is particularly important for Catholics and is an official holiday in their ecclesiastic calendar. Also known as the Commemoration of the Dearly Departed and the Day of the Dead, All Souls’ Day is generally a day of remembrance, when prayers are said for the souls of those who have passed on.</p>
<p>Around the world, All Souls often involves visiting cemeteries where loved ones are buried, and tending to their graves. Attending a mass or church service, praying and eating particular foods are all part of these observations.</p>
<p>In Italy, for instance, one can eat the <a href="https://www.savoringitaly.com/pan-dei-morti-bread-of-dead-cookies/"><em>pan dei morti</em></a> – literally, bread of the dead – a kind of chocolate biscuit filled with nuts. The biscuit represents the soil, and the nuts represent the bones of the departed. In a number of cultures, food is left out as an offering for the dead as a way of <a href="https://www.rd.com/list/all-souls-day-around-the-world/">commemorating</a> their lives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429224/original/file-20211028-18-5s1oty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429224/original/file-20211028-18-5s1oty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429224/original/file-20211028-18-5s1oty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429224/original/file-20211028-18-5s1oty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429224/original/file-20211028-18-5s1oty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429224/original/file-20211028-18-5s1oty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429224/original/file-20211028-18-5s1oty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The duality of life and death: a parade through Mexico City on Día de Muertos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Día de Muertos</h2>
<p>While it is first and foremost a religious holiday, All Souls’ Day/The Day of the Dead has, as often happens, been incorporated into secular popular culture. </p>
<p>Most obviously, we see Day of the Dead motifs borrowed for secular Halloween celebrations – even if the two days within Allhallowtide have very different origins, iconographies and principles at their core.</p>
<p>Increasingly, though, it is the Mexican incarnation of the Day of the Dead that has taken hold of the popular imagination. Día de Muertos takes on special tones in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, as well as within Latino communities around the world.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-commercialization-over-the-centuries-transformed-the-day-of-the-dead-170428">How commercialization over the centuries transformed the Day of the Dead</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Observed over the first two days of November, Día de Muertos is a time of both remembrance and celebration. But where All Souls can be a sombre occasion in other places, in Mexico it is a bright and colourful holiday, focused on celebrating the lives of those who have come before.</p>
<p>While Día de Muertos is certainly situated within Christian belief, it also mingles culturally and conceptually with Indigenous beliefs dating back before the Spanish invasion, where the celebration of “death as part of life” was <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/what-do-sugar-skulls-mean-on-el-dia-de-los-muertos/">central</a> to religious systems.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429228/original/file-20211028-15-cov8a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429228/original/file-20211028-15-cov8a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429228/original/file-20211028-15-cov8a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429228/original/file-20211028-15-cov8a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429228/original/file-20211028-15-cov8a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429228/original/file-20211028-15-cov8a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429228/original/file-20211028-15-cov8a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ceramic flower skull souvenirs on sale in Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The flower skull</h2>
<p>An important part of Día de Muertos – which it shares with celebrations in other countries – is the belief that the dearly departed can return and visit the living during this time. Big family feasts and musical performances are held to welcome the spirits.</p>
<p>Altars known as <em>ofrendas</em> are set up for the dead, where their pictures are <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/meaning-behind-six-objects-dia-de-los-muertos-altars-180973442/">commonly displayed</a>. You sometimes see the practice represented in popular culture, most recently in the 2017 animated film Coco.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-day-of-the-dead-tells-us-about-the-aztec-philosophy-of-happiness-147552">What Day of the Dead tells us about the Aztec philosophy of happiness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The iconic “flower skull” is perhaps the most recognisable motif of Día de Muertos. You will find it printed on postcards, banners and clothing. It’s also common to see people dressed as “flower skeletons”, and to consume “sugar skull” confectionery.</p>
<p>The flower skull has been widely appropriated by popular culture around the world, even in countries geographically and culturally distant from Mexico. This undoubtedly owes a lot to the <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/the-skeleton-following-the-footsteps-of-diego-and-frida-museo-dolores-olmedo/YAKCzBbv0D-8Kg?hl=en">enduring popularity</a> of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), who regularly incorporated the flower skull in her paintings exploring the duality of life and death.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429226/original/file-20211028-23-pc6o74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429226/original/file-20211028-23-pc6o74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429226/original/file-20211028-23-pc6o74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429226/original/file-20211028-23-pc6o74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429226/original/file-20211028-23-pc6o74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429226/original/file-20211028-23-pc6o74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/429226/original/file-20211028-23-pc6o74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visiting the graves of loved ones is an important element of the Christian All Souls’ Day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>We’ll meet again</h2>
<p>While it may seem at odds with the grim reality of the pandemic, the deeper meaning of the Day of the Dead is felt in many communities across many countries. For those who believe and celebrate All Souls in a religious way, the holiday can be a balm, as families pray and remember their dead.</p>
<p>In its more celebratory manifestations, the Day of the Dead rests on the belief that our loved ones who have gone are still always with us – and that we will <a href="https://www.medicaldaily.com/dia-de-los-muertos-or-day-dead-helps-families-cope-grief-through-sugar-skulls-food-359774">see them once again</a> when the time comes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hell-no-halloween-is-not-satanic-its-an-important-way-to-think-about-death-118391">Hell, no! Halloween is not 'satanic' – it's an important way to think about death</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While it can’t erase the grief and pain of losing loved ones, a recurring commemoration such as the Day of the Dead also emphasises the importance of celebrating life. This can certainly be a comfort for those who believe, and should be respected as something spiritually important in their lives.</p>
<p>And in its most colourful incarnation as the Mexican-inspired Día de Muertos, the day celebrates the profound idea that love, memory and family connections live on, even in the face of death.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorna Piatti-Farnell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Part of the Christian tradition of Allhallowtide, All Souls’ Day – or the Day of the Dead – takes on special meaning as COVID changes the way we think about life and death.
Lorna Piatti-Farnell, Professor of Popular Culture, Auckland University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/170428
2021-10-27T12:20:12Z
2021-10-27T12:20:12Z
How commercialization over the centuries transformed the Day of the Dead
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428326/original/file-20211025-15-1jp2576.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1280%2C848&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The mass-marketing of the Day of the Dead is evident in the costumes that people buy for the day.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/people-in-traditional-costume-celebrating-day-of-royalty-free-image/565802883?adppopup=true"> Man Hon Lam / EyeEm Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a Mexican-American who celebrates Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, at the end of October and beginning of November, I’ve noted an increasing concern the past several years that the holiday is becoming more commercialized. </p>
<p>Indeed, for those who hold the holiday sacred, it’s jarring to see the extent to which it’s now mass-marketed. The evidence is everywhere. The holiday <a href="https://www.target.com/c/dia-de-muertos/-/N-fvppu?Nao=0">aisles of Target</a> are stuffed with cheap Day of the Dead crafts during October. Halloween stores sell <a href="https://www.spirithalloween.com/product/adult-lady-of-the-dead-costume/215745.uts?Extid=sf_froogle">Day of the Dead costumes</a>. Nike makes Day of the Dead <a href="https://www.nicekicks.com/nike-dia-de-los-muertos-collection-2021-release-date/">shoes</a>. California and Arizona sell Day of the Dead <a href="https://arizonalottely.com/scratchers/1289-celebrando-dia-de-los-muertos/">lottery tickets</a>. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/us/disney-trademark-day-dead/index.html">Disney famously tried to trademark</a> “Día de los Muertos” before its 2017 film “Coco.” The examples go on and on. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that Día de los Muertos and its associated imagery, skulls and skeletons have become trendy and a prime opportunity for companies to make a profit.</p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/2740395">researcher</a> of culture and performance, I know only too well that the truth is Day of the Dead has always been commodified.</p>
<h2>The roots of commercialization</h2>
<p>Day of the Dead is what anthropologist <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/our-authors/nutini-hugo-gino">Hugo Nutini</a> calls a <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691634708/todos-santos-in-rural-tlaxcala">syncretic holiday</a>, meaning it’s a cultural product of two different religious traditions that hybridized during the European colonization of the Americas. </p>
<p>Day of the Dead brings together the annual feasts for the dead celebrated by pre-Hispanic Indigenous cultures such as the Aztec, Maya, Zapotec and Mixtec peoples. During Mexico’s 300-year-long colonial period, which started in 1521, these Indigenous rituals were merged with the Spanish Catholic holy days for the dead known as All Saints, celebrated on Nov. 1, and All Souls on Nov. 2.</p>
<p>Early Spanish chroniclers in Mesoamerica such as Diego Duran and
Bernardino Sahagún documented the Aztec feasts for the dead known as Miccailhuitontli and Huey Miccailhuitl. Duran wrote in the 1570s that he was <a href="https://oupress.com/books/9780735/history-of-the-indies-of-new-spain">astounded to see how lavishly</a> the Aztecs spent on supplies for their offerings to the dead. </p>
<p>Sahagún <a href="https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/florentine-codex-full-set/">noted the overwhelming bustle and financial activity</a> that took place at the market in the capital city of Tenochtitlán, modern-day Mexico City, during the Aztec ritual feasts. </p>
<p>All manner of foods and goods were sold to citizens to <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Aztecs%2C+3rd+Edition-p-9781405194976">celebrate the Aztec</a> feasts of the dead. In this respect, there wasn’t much distinction between commercial and religious activity. The religious feasts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48246-5_9">supported the market</a> and vice versa.</p>
<p>The Catholic religion also emphasized commercial activity in relation to All Saints and All Souls Day. According to 16th- and 17th-century Catholic belief, the majority of souls landed in purgatory after death, rather than heaven or hell. It was the responsibility of the living to help alleviate the suffering of souls in purgatory and assist them in getting to heaven. This could be done through prayer or by <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/179316">making offerings</a> to the souls. </p>
<p>In Mexico that meant Spanish colonizers and newly converted Indigenous Catholics were tasked with <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781890951542/death-and-the-idea-of-mexico">purchasing</a> directly from the church candles and other religious items that could be used in offerings to those souls in purgatory. Additionally, they could pay their local priest to <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/treasury-of-mexican-folkways-the-customs-myths-folklore-traditions-beliefs-fiestas-dances-and-songs-of-the-mexican-people/oclc/1178656538?referer=di&ht=edition">say special prayers for the souls</a> during Día de los Muertos, a practice that remained in effect through the 20th century. </p>
<h2>The colonial era</h2>
<p>As Day of the Dead became a more popular and elaborate festival in Mexico, the associated commercial activity grew in size. According to anthropologist <a href="https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/claudio-w-lomnitz">Claudio Lomnitz</a>, in the 1700s Day of the Dead <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781890951542/death-and-the-idea-of-mexico">generated the largest annual market in Mexico City</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, the plazas and streets were so overwhelmed during the holiday with vendors, carts, booths and makeshift markets that the local government deemed it a “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781890951542/death-and-the-idea-of-mexico">public disorder</a>.” Mexico City’s mayor and city council eventually had to control Day of the Dead’s economic frenzy by enacting laws and issuing vendor permits. In other words, the holiday had become so commodified in Mexico City that it <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781890951542/death-and-the-idea-of-mexico">required government regulation</a>. </p>
<p>By and large the markets and vendors in Mexico sold items related to the holiday – food, candy, bread, alcohol, candles, toys and religious items. However, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781890951542/death-and-the-idea-of-mexico">according to Lomnitz</a>, by the 1800s, the Day of the Dead markets in Mexico City were also selling clothing, shoes, furniture, tools, home decor and many other things.</p>
<p>The swell of commercial activity on Day of the Dead also presented an opportunity for musicians, dancers and other entertainers to <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9781890951542/death-and-the-idea-of-mexico">perform on the streets for money</a>. In short, Day of the Dead in Mexico City and other urban areas carried both religious and economic significance.</p>
<h2>Modern-day commercialization</h2>
<p>Day of the Dead’s commercialization was also quite pronounced in rural Mexico. A <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1956/06/18/archives/frances-toor-66-wrote-on-mexico-author-of-books-on-folkways-and-of.html">number of</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Manuel-Gamio">anthropologists</a> in Mexico and the U.S. <a href="https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/brenner-anita">writing about</a> Day of the Dead in the early and mid-20th century <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/treasury-of-mexican-folkways-the-customs-myths-folklore-traditions-beliefs-fiestas-dances-and-songs-of-the-mexican-people/oclc/1178656538?referer=di&ht=edition">make special note</a> <a href="https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/1894-forjando-patria">of the sizable holiday markets</a>. They write that villages are transformed into commercial fairs where people gather from communities many miles away to buy and sell foods, goods and services during the festival. </p>
<p>The scholarship of anthropologists <a href="https://anthropology.berkeley.edu/stanley-h-brandes">Stanley Brandes</a> and <a href="https://www.lais.ucsb.edu/affiliate/ruth-hellier-tinoco/">Ruth Hellier-Tinoco</a> has been influential for understanding how Mexico began “selling” <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Skulls+to+the+Living%2C+Bread+to+the+Dead%3A+The+Day+of+the+Dead+in+Mexico+and+Beyond-p-9781405152471">Day of the Dead</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340365.001.0001">to the outside world in the mid-20th century</a>. Mexico’s tourism industry started <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340365.001.0001/acprof-9780195340365?result=8&rskey=sRnbZu">promoting</a> the holiday to U.S. and European travelers as an “authentic” Mexican experience. </p>
<p>Many guidebooks and travel brochures highlighted Day of the Dead as a cultural event for tourists to attend and buy folk art related to the holiday. Additionally, Mexico’s tourism industry positioned certain regional celebrations as the most “traditional” Day of the Dead festivals for tourists to explore. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428586/original/file-20211026-17-gx9fg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mexican candy sugar skulls on display for the Day of the Dead in Michoacan, a state in western Mexico." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428586/original/file-20211026-17-gx9fg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428586/original/file-20211026-17-gx9fg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428586/original/file-20211026-17-gx9fg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428586/original/file-20211026-17-gx9fg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428586/original/file-20211026-17-gx9fg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428586/original/file-20211026-17-gx9fg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428586/original/file-20211026-17-gx9fg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mexican candy in the shape of sugar skulls being sold on the occasion of the Day of the Dead in Michoacan, in the western part of Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sugar-skulls-on-the-day-of-the-dead-royalty-free-image/1274350200?adppopup=true">©fitopardo/Moment via Getty images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hellier-Tinoco has shown how Mexico’s “selling” of the Day of the Dead on the rustic island of Janitzio in the state of Michoacán transformed the small community ceremony <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340365.001.0001">into a spectacle</a> attended by more than 100,000 tourists a year. </p>
<p>Given all this evidence, there doesn’t appear to be an era when Day of the Dead wasn’t intimately tied to financial activities and profiteering. But the holiday’s commercialization has also ensured its survival.</p>
<p>In 2019, I talked to a grandmother building a Day of the Dead ofrenda, an altar with offerings for her family’s dearly departed that included candles, food, flowers, and festive decorations. For years she’d tried to get her grandchildren to help her erect the altar for their ancestors, to no avail. It wasn’t until they watched Disney’s “Coco” and saw sugar skulls at Target that they took interest in the holiday. Now they eagerly help their grandmother build the altar. </p>
<p>Commercialization is and has been transforming Day of the Dead. But, from what I’ve seen, it’s also giving a new generation a chance to be proud of their culture.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Sandoval is affiliated with the Mesa Arts Center, an arts nonprofit that stages an annual Day of the Dead celebration. He serves on its annual Day of the Dead organizing committee. Dr. Sandoval is also affiliated with the Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Dia de los Muertos festival, serving as a judge for its altar competition. </span></em></p>
A Mexican-American scholar writes that in the 1700s, Day of the Dead generated the largest annual market in Mexico City.
Mathew Sandoval, Lecturer in Culture & Performance, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/147552
2020-10-30T17:38:51Z
2020-10-30T17:38:51Z
What Day of the Dead tells us about the Aztec philosophy of happiness
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366720/original/file-20201030-14-bl4nrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=343%2C30%2C4626%2C3328&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For the Aztecs, Day of the Dead rituals helped people find balance in their personal lives and social ties.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-with-the-skull-painted-face-take-part-during-the-news-photo/1179381236?adppopup=true">Eyepix/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Growing up in the United States, I remember on Halloween my mother used to say, “Honey, this is not just a day for costumes and candy. You must also remember your relatives. Know their names.” She would show me pictures of great-aunts, uncles and other deceased relatives.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, my family members in Mexico observed Day of the Dead, a national holiday that is celebrated from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. They would build small altars at home to honor their loved ones, and put food, drinks, photos and other personal items on them. They similarly decorated their ancestors’ graves.</p>
<p>These days, I am part of a small <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Aztec_Philosophy/yYbgCwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">group of researchers</a> who are <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Aztec_Thought_and_Culture/y68UvoYeBt8C?hl=en&gbpv=0">working to recover</a> Aztec philosophy. My focus is on Aztec ethics, which the Aztecs thought of as <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339129869_Eudaimonia_and_Neltiliztli_Aristotle_and_the_Aztecs_on_Natural_Goodness">the art of living well</a>, but we call the pursuit of happiness. </p>
<p>I’ve learned that Day of the Dead rituals, which date back to Mexico’s pre-Columbian peoples and are observed all over the Americas, are deeply rooted in Aztec ethics.</p>
<h2>A brief introduction to Aztec philosophy</h2>
<p>Shortly after Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, Spanish people
colonized the region. In 1521 the Aztec empire <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/seven-myths-of-the-spanish-conquest-9780195176117?cc=us&lang=en&#">fell in a two-year war</a> led by the Spaniard Hernán Cortés.</p>
<p>Afterwards, Spanish priests wanted to understand the native population in order to convert them to Christianity. They painstakingly detailed the Aztecs’ beliefs in volumes of material written in Nahuatl, the Aztec language. The most important of these sources is the “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Florentine_Codex/MAcOAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">Florentine Codex</a>,” written between 1547 and 1577.</p>
<p>The basic problem of life for the Aztecs, according to these sources, is that humans aren’t perfect – they make mistakes. “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=5e1ExgEACAAJ&dq=florentine+codex+volume+6&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix293U1dfsAhVXmHIEHchpDq8Q6AEwAHoECAIQAQ">The earth is slippery, slick</a>,” the Aztecs would say. And to avoid falling into error, people need to live a balanced life on three different levels: in their psyches, their bodies and their society.</p>
<p>The top individual goal in Aztec ethics, then, is for people to balance their psyche. It is done by aligning the heart, or yollotl, and face, or ixtli. By “heart,” the Aztecs meant thoughts and desires. By “face,” they meant the rational organization of those desires. </p>
<h2>Where Day of the Dead fits in</h2>
<p>For the Aztecs, then, a happy life is achieved through balance. Individually, this means balancing one’s “face” and “heart,” but socially this involves friends, family and ancestors. Day of the Dead rituals help with this social balance.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that the “heart” is a metaphor for all of the body’s desires. Also, the Aztecs did not distinguish minds from bodies. They believed each region of the body had its own “mind.” For example, our eyes think one way, our ears another, and our skin another way still. As the scholar <a href="https://peoplepill.com/people/alfredo-lopez-austin/">Alfredo Lopéz Austin</a> <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Cuerpo_humano_e_ideologia/oQvxxQEACAAJ?hl=en">argues</a>, the Aztecs thought of consciousness as the result of this ecosystem of minds, with each mind competing for attention and expressing its own desires. </p>
<p>Within this ecosystem of minds, the Aztecs believed that three regions held the highest concentration of the cosmic forces <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Natural_History_of_the_Soul_in_Ancie/TwEspZbYC48C?hl=en&gbpv=0">that make humans living, moving beings</a>: the heart (the physical heart, in this case), the head and the liver.</p>
<p>The heart houses the “yolia,” which expresses one’s conscious and remembered personality. The head houses the “tonalli,” which <a href="http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0185-25742013000200008">expresses the strength of one’s character and destiny</a>. And the liver houses the “ihiyotl,” which is responsible for our breathing and health. </p>
<p>When we die, the Aztecs believed these three powers separate from our bodies. The ihiyotl, or breath, immediately rejoins nature. The tonalli, or vital strength, returns as energy to be called on in need. One’s yolia. or personality, however, <a href="http://revistas.unam.mx/index.php/antropologia/article/view/20342">travels to the land of the dead</a>, called Mictlán. There, it endures a series of trials, including hunger and cold winds. </p>
<p>To help in the journey, each person’s yolia is accompanied by a little yellow dog and whatever offerings one’s loved ones make. That’s why on various days of the year – not only during Day of the Dead – <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Bonds_of_Blood/0EaHDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">family members are supposed to help</a> the yolia of recently deceased relatives by offering them food, drink and other gifts at their home shrines. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>But after four years, the yolia finishes its journey and rejoins the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339129611_On_What_there_Is_Aristotle_and_the_Aztecs_on_Being_and_Existence">fundamental energy of the universe</a> – “ometeotl,” or god. All that remains of the deceased, then, is their force of personality as tonalli, which, the Aztecs believed, could be called on by remembering their name.</p>
<p>By remembering our ancestors, Aztecs thought, we help balance our lives while we’re here on Earth and also support our loves ones in their afterlife. This, in essence, is the purpose of the Day of the Dead that many observe today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynn Sebastian Purcell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Day of the Dead rituals help people connect with their ancestors, which the Aztecs believed was key to well-being.
Lynn Sebastian Purcell, Associate Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York Cortland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/124962
2019-10-28T09:57:25Z
2019-10-28T09:57:25Z
Day of the Dead: From Aztec goddess worship to modern Mexican celebration
<p>Day of the Dead might sound like a solemn affair, but Mexico’s <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/indigenous-festivity-dedicated-to-the-dead-00054">famous holiday</a> is actually a lively commemoration of the departed. </p>
<p>The nationwide festivities, which include a <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/mexico-city-declares-alebrijes-cultural-heritage/">massive parade in Mexico City</a>, typically begin the night of Oct. 31 with families sitting vigil at grave sites. Mexican tradition holds that on Nov. 1 and 2, the dead awaken to reconnect and celebrate with their living family and friends. </p>
<p>Given the timing, it may be tempting to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/30/no-dia-de-los-muertos-isnt-mexican-halloween/762225001/">equate Day of the Dead with Halloween</a>, a ghost-themed U.S. holiday. But the two holidays express fundamentally different beliefs.</p>
<p>While Halloween has its <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-scary-stories-to-scowling-pumpkins-halloween-has-pagan-roots-33661">origins in pagan and Christian traditions</a>, Day of the Dead has indigenous roots as a celebration of the Aztec goddess of death. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298565/original/file-20191024-170458-q3knyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298565/original/file-20191024-170458-q3knyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298565/original/file-20191024-170458-q3knyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298565/original/file-20191024-170458-q3knyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298565/original/file-20191024-170458-q3knyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298565/original/file-20191024-170458-q3knyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298565/original/file-20191024-170458-q3knyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298565/original/file-20191024-170458-q3knyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mexico’s Day of the Dead begins with an overnight graveside vigil on Oct. 31.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Mexico-Day-of-the-Dead/2965ccdfed014104bbf434b462da14cd/6/0">AP Photo/Marco Ugarte</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mictecacihuatl, goddess of death</h2>
<p>Day of the Dead can be traced back to the native peoples of central and southern Mexico, the regions where <a href="https://www.kirbyfarahphd.com/">I conduct my archaeological research</a>.</p>
<p>When the Spanish arrived in central Mexico 500 years ago, the region had millions of indigenous inhabitants. The conquistadores largely characterized them as Aztecs because, at the time, they were united under the expansive <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/aztecs">Aztec empire</a>. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Aztec_codices">colonial period records</a>, the Aztec empire was formed in <a href="https://www.historycrunch.com/aztec-triple-alliance.html#/">A.D. 1427</a>, only about a century before the arrival of Spanish . But the celebration that Mexicans now call Día de los Muertos almost certainly existed <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/day-of-the-dead">many centuries earlier</a>, perhaps originating with the <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Toltec_Civilization/">Toltec people of central Mexico</a>.</p>
<p>In any case, by the time the Spanish conquistadors invaded in 1519, the Aztecs recognized a wide pantheon of gods, which included a goddess of death and the underworld named <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Mictlantecuhtli/">Mictecacihuatl</a>. She was celebrated throughout the entire ninth month of the Aztec calendar, a 20-day month that corresponded roughly to late July and early August. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298590/original/file-20191024-170499-6u88ak.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298590/original/file-20191024-170499-6u88ak.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298590/original/file-20191024-170499-6u88ak.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298590/original/file-20191024-170499-6u88ak.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298590/original/file-20191024-170499-6u88ak.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298590/original/file-20191024-170499-6u88ak.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298590/original/file-20191024-170499-6u88ak.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298590/original/file-20191024-170499-6u88ak.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mictecacihuatl’s underworld husband, Mictlantecuhtli, was also depicted in skeletal form.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/2013-12-24_Mictlantecuhtli_anagoria.JPG">Anagoria/National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Aztec mythology tells that Mictecacihuatl was sacrificed as a baby and magically grew to adulthood in the underworld, where she married. With her husband, she presided over the underworld. </p>
<p>Mictecacihuatl – who is often depicted with flayed skin and a gaping, skeletal jaw – was linked to both death and resurrection. <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/mictecacihuatl-aztec-goddess-of-death-248587">According to one myth</a>, Mictecacihuatl and her husband collected bones so that they might be returned to the land of the living and restored by the gods. </p>
<p>The Aztecs appeased these fearsome underworld gods by burying their dead with food and precious objects. </p>
<p>Archaeologists and historians know relatively little about the details of the month-long celebration of Mictecacihuatl, but say it likely involved <a href="https://www.wdl.org/en/item/10613/">burning incense, song and dance, and blood sacrifice</a> – customary practices in many <a href="https://www.historyonthenet.com/aztec-religious-ceremonies-and-rituals">Aztec rituals</a>.</p>
<h2>Blending cultures</h2>
<p>The Spanish invaders of Mexico were Catholic, and they worked hard to <a href="https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1562-religion-and-society-in-new-spain-mexico-s-colonial-era">evangelize native peoples</a>. To stamp out lingering indigenous beliefs, they demolished religious temples, <a href="https://vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/1707">burned indigenous idols and destroyed Aztec books</a>. </p>
<p>But indigenous people in Mexico, as across the Americas, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mexico-city-dig-uncovers-traces-aztec-resistance-spain-180963970/">resisted</a> Spanish efforts to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-bloody-tale-of-how-mexico-went-catholic">eradicate their culture</a>. Instead, they often blended their own religious and cultural practices with those imposed on them by the Spanish. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298566/original/file-20191024-170462-p1ajm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298566/original/file-20191024-170462-p1ajm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298566/original/file-20191024-170462-p1ajm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298566/original/file-20191024-170462-p1ajm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298566/original/file-20191024-170462-p1ajm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298566/original/file-20191024-170462-p1ajm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298566/original/file-20191024-170462-p1ajm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298566/original/file-20191024-170462-p1ajm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A calavera – Day of the Dead skeleton – all dressed up for that afterlife party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/TENENCIAS_MORELIA_089.jpg/800px-TENENCIAS_MORELIA_089.jpg">Alfonso Martorell/Culture and Tourism Secretary of Morelia</a></span>
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<p>Perhaps the best-known symbol of the ethnic and cultural mixing that defines modern Mexico is <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/virgen-de-guadalupe_n_4434582">La Virgen de Guadalupe</a>, a uniquely Mexican Virgin Mary. </p>
<p>Many Mexican Catholics believe that in 1531 the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego, an indigenous Mexican farmer, and in his native language of Nahuatl told him to build a shrine to her. Today the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is <a href="https://www.spiritualtravels.info/articles-2/south-america/mexico-citys-shrine-to-our-lady-of-guadalupe/">among the world’s most visited holy sites</a>. </p>
<p>Day of the Dead is almost certainly a similar case of blended cultures. </p>
<p>Spanish conquerors faced difficulty in convincing native peoples to give up their rituals honoring death goddess Mictecihuatl. The compromise was to move these indigenous festivities from late July to early November to correspond with <a href="https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/10/24/the-season-of-the-dead-the-origins-and-practice-of-allhallowtide/">Allhallowtide</a> – the three-day Christian observance of All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. </p>
<p>With this move, the holiday was nominally connected to Catholicism. But many practices and beliefs associated with the worship of the dead remained deeply indigenous. </p>
<h2>Día de los Muertos today</h2>
<p>Contemporary Day of the Dead rituals were featured prominently in the 2017 Disney/Pixar film “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvr68u6k5sI">Coco</a>.” These include homemade sugar skulls, decorated home altars, the fantastical spirit animals called alebrijes and images of <a href="https://www.davidsongalleries.com/artists/modern/jose-guadalupe-posada/restrikes/gran-baile-de-calaveras/">convivial calaveras</a> – skeletons – enjoying the afterlife in their finest regalia.</p>
<p>The use of Mexican marigolds to adorn altars and graves on Day of the Dead probably has indigenous origins. Called cempasúchil by the Aztecs, the vibrant Mexican marigold grows during the fall. <a href="https://beautifulmesoamerica.com/cempasuchil-legend/">According to myth</a>, the sweet smell of these flowers awaken the dead.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298571/original/file-20191024-170462-c41idx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298571/original/file-20191024-170462-c41idx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298571/original/file-20191024-170462-c41idx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298571/original/file-20191024-170462-c41idx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298571/original/file-20191024-170462-c41idx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298571/original/file-20191024-170462-c41idx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298571/original/file-20191024-170462-c41idx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298571/original/file-20191024-170462-c41idx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mexico City’s annual Day of the Dead parade features floats of alebrijes, or spirit animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desfile_de_Alebrijes.jpg">Juancho Lorant/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The elaborately decorated shrines to deceased loved ones, which usually contain offerings for the dead, may also have pre-Hispanic origins. Many indigenous peoples across Mesoamerica had altars in their <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199341962.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199341962-e-26">houses or patios</a>. These were used to perform household rituals, worship gods and communicate with ancestors. </p>
<p>The bones, skulls and skeletons that are so iconic of Day of the Dead are fundamentally indigenous, too. Many Aztecs gods were <a href="https://uknowledge.uky.edu/world_mexico_codices/8/">depicted as skeletal</a>. Other deities wore bones as clothing or jewelry. </p>
<p>The Aztecs, who engaged in ritual human sacrifice, even used human bones to make <a href="https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-4002294560">musical instruments</a>. The Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan had a large bone rack, called a <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/feeding-gods-hundreds-skulls-reveal-massive-scale-human-sacrifice-aztec-capital">tzompantli</a>, that stored thousands of human skulls. </p>
<p>And when Aztec commoners <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199341962.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199341962-e-26">buried deceased family members under their own houses</a> to keep them close, Mictecacihuatl became the formidable guardian of their bones. </p>
<p>That’s good reason, the Aztecs would say, to celebrate this goddess of death with breads, flowers and a killer three-day party. </p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to more accurately characterize the origins of Halloween.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirby Farah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It may sound like a solemn affair, but the Day of the Dead – which blends indigenous and Catholic ritual – is a convivial celebration that allows Mexicans to reconnect with deceased loved ones.
Kirby Farah, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86199
2017-11-01T18:41:22Z
2017-11-01T18:41:22Z
What ancient cultures teach us about grief, mourning and continuity of life
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192842/original/file-20171101-19894-tr4qsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Day of the dead at a Mexican cemetery. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADay_of_the_dead_at_mexican_cemetery_4.jpg">© Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At this time of the year, <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/day-%20%20of%20%20-the-dead-%20%20in%20%20-the-usa/9780813548579">Mexican and Mexican-American communities</a> observe <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/days-%20%20of%20%20-death-days-%20%20of%20%20-life/9780231136891">“Día de los Muertos” (the Day of the Dead)</a>, a three-day celebration that welcomes the dead temporarily back into families. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192850/original/file-20171101-19850-1a2eow3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192850/original/file-20171101-19850-1a2eow3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192850/original/file-20171101-19850-1a2eow3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192850/original/file-20171101-19850-1a2eow3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192850/original/file-20171101-19850-1a2eow3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192850/original/file-20171101-19850-1a2eow3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192850/original/file-20171101-19850-1a2eow3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Altar to the dead in Yucatán, Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Wojcik</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Festivities begin on the evening of Oct. 31 and culminate on Nov. 2. Spirits of the departed are believed to be able to reenter the world of the living for a few brief moments during these days. Altars are created in homes, where photographs and other personal items evocative of the dead are placed. Offerings to the deceased include flowers, incense, images of saints, crucifixes and favorite foods. Family members gather in cemeteries to dine not just among the dead but with them. Similar traditions exist in different cultures with different origins.</p>
<p>As scholars of <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814793480/">death</a> and <a href="http://folklore.uoregon.edu/files/2013/08/Wojcik-Pres-Rock.pdf">mourning rituals</a>, we believe that Día de los Muertos traditions are most likely connected to feasts observed by the ancient Aztecs. Today, they honor the memory of the dead and celebrate the continuity of generations through loving reunion with those who came before. </p>
<p>As Western societies, particularly the United States, move away <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/death/fond-farewells">from the direct experience of a mourner</a>, the rites and customs of other cultures offer valuable lessons.</p>
<h2>Loss of rituals</h2>
<p>Funerals were handled in the home well into the 20th century in the U.S. and throughout Europe. Sometimes, stylized and elaborate public <a href="http://www.deathreference.com/A-Bi/Ars-Moriendi.html">deathbed rituals</a> were organized by the dying person in advance of the death event itself. As French historian <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/4744/the-hour-of-our-death-by-philipe-aries-translated-from-the-french-by-helen-weaver/9780394751566/">Philippe Ariès</a> writes, throughout much of the Western world, such death rituals declined during the 18th and 19th centuries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192847/original/file-20171101-19883-1c007wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192847/original/file-20171101-19883-1c007wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192847/original/file-20171101-19883-1c007wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192847/original/file-20171101-19883-1c007wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192847/original/file-20171101-19883-1c007wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192847/original/file-20171101-19883-1c007wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192847/original/file-20171101-19883-1c007wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The modern funeral industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=AsyxxvFFRQzph6vjBqJznw-2-68">Coffin image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>What emerged instead was a greater fear of death and the dead body. Medical advances extended control over death as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-lincolns-embrace-of-embalming-birthed-the-american-funeral-industry-86196">funeral industry took over</a> management of the dead. Increasingly, death became hidden from public view. No longer familiar, death became threatening and horrific. </p>
<p>Today, as various <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/western-attitudes-toward-death">scholars</a> and <a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/book-template.aspx?aid=4294981525&cid=15147&lastpage=4&currentpage=1">morticians</a> have observed, many in American culture lack the explicit mourning rituals that help people deal with loss.</p>
<h2>Traditions in ancient cultures</h2>
<p>In contrast, the mourning traditions of earlier cultures prescribed precise patterns of behavior that facilitated the public expression of grief and provided support for the bereaved. In addition, they emphasized continued maintenance of personal bonds with the dead.</p>
<p><a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/western-attitudes-toward-death">As Ariès explains</a>, during the Middle Ages in Europe, the death event was a public ritual. It involved specific preparations, the presence of family, friends and neighbors, as well as music, food, drinks and games. The social aspect of these customs kept death public and “tame” through the enactment of familiar ceremonies that comforted mourners.</p>
<p>Grief was expressed in an open and unrestrained way that was cathartic and communally shared, very much in contrast with the modern emphasis on controlling one’s emotions and keeping grief private. </p>
<p>In various cultures the outpouring of emotion was not only required but <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/celebrations-death-anthropology-mortuary-ritual-2nd-edition?format=PB&isbn=9780521423755">performed ceremonially</a>, in the form of ritualized weeping accompanied by wailing and shrieking. For example, traditions of the “death wail,” which allowed people to cry their grief aloud, have been documented among the ancient Celts. They exist today among various indigenous peoples of Africa, South America, Asia and <a href="http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Ethnographic-wax-cylinders/025M-C0080X1104XX-0100V0#_">Australia</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RMdt3rAfmgo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Song for the dead sung by two women from the Manobo-Dulangan tribe in Mindanao, Philippines.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a similar way, the traditional Irish and Scottish practices of “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04wvgpc">keening</a>,” or loudly wailing for the dead, were vocal expressions of mourning. These emotional forms of sorrow were a powerful way to give voice to the impact of individual loss on the wider community. Mourning was shared and public.</p>
<p>In fact, since antiquity and throughout parts of Europe until recently, professional female mourners were often hired to perform highly emotive <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Dangerous-Voices-Womens-Laments-and-Greek-Literature/Holst-Warhaft/p/book/9780415121651">laments at funerals</a>. </p>
<p>Such customs functioned within a larger mourning tradition to separate the deceased from the world of the living and symbolize the transition to the afterlife. </p>
<h2>Rituals of celebration</h2>
<p>Mourning rituals also celebrated the dead through carnival-like revelry. Among the ancient <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100254050">Greeks</a> and <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300217278/death-ancient-rome">Romans</a>, for example, the deceased were honored with lavish feasts and funeral games. </p>
<p>Such practices continue today in many cultures. In Ethiopia, members of the Dorze ethnic community sing and dance before, during and after funerary rites in communal ceremonies meant to defeat death and avenge the deceased. </p>
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</figure>
<p>In not too distant Tanzania, the burial traditions of the Nyakyusa people initially focus on wailing but then include feasts. They also require that participants <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02561751.1939.9676088">dance and flirt at the funeral</a>, confronting death with an affirmation of life.</p>
<p>Similar assertions of life in the midst of death are expressed in the example of the traditional Irish “<a href="https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/the-truth-about-the-irish-wake-lewd-songs-pranks-were-part-of-the-tradition-174087771-237533321">merry wake</a>,” a mixture of <a href="http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2011/0715/646810-radio-documentary-house-strictly-private-irish-wake/">mourning and celebration</a> that honors the deceased. The African-American <a href="http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/multicultural/multiculturaltraditions/jazzfuneral.html">“jazz funeral”</a> processions in New Orleans also combine sadness and festivity, as the solemn parade for the deceased transforms into dance, music and a party-like atmosphere.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EG6KH905cGU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>These lively funerals are expressions of sorrow and laughter, communal catharsis and commemoration that honor the life of the departed. </p>
<h2>A way to deal with grief</h2>
<p>Grief and celebration seem like strange bedfellows at first glance, but both are emotions that overflow. The ritual practices that surround death and mourning as <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3637677.html">rites of passage</a> help individuals and their communities make sense of loss through a renewed focus on continuity. </p>
<p>By doing things in a culturally defined way – by performing the same acts as ancestors have done – ritual participants engage in venerated traditions to connect with something enduring and eternal. Rituals make boundaries between life and death, the <a href="http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/The-Sacred-and-the-Profane/9780156792011">sacred and the profane</a>, memory and experience, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Ritual-Process-Structure-and-Anti-Structure/Turner-Abrahams-Harris/p/book/9780202011905">permeable</a>. The dead seem less far away and less forgotten. Death itself becomes more natural and familiar.</p>
<p>Funerary festivities such as Day of the Dead create space for this type of contemplation. As we reminisce over our own losses, that is something we could consider.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many in the Western world lack the explicit mourning rituals that help people deal with loss. On Day of the Dead, two scholars describe ancient mourning practices.
Daniel Wojcik, Professor, English and Folklore Studies, University of Oregon
Robert Dobler, Lecturer of Folklore, Indiana University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86047
2017-11-01T03:26:28Z
2017-11-01T03:26:28Z
Grief rituals: what Australia can learn from the Day of the Dead
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191769/original/file-20171025-5838-1x3oozj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Day of the Dead Oaxaca, Mexico</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Colleen Nordstrom</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians have few public commemorations of death. We have funerals, roadside memorials and annual Anzac services, but only certain deaths are remembered. For most of us, death and mourning are private affairs. Individuals have to find their own way to preserve the memory of their beloved dead, and process their grief.</p>
<p>This is not the case in other cultures, such as Mexico, where the Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1-2. This is a time for communities, families and friends to gather in celebration as they remember and honour their dead. I am part of a project, working with the <a href="http://www.mexvic.org.au/electra_events/day-dead-2017/">Australian Mexican community</a>, exploring how Day of the Dead can open up discussions on dying, end-of-life choices, and grief in Australia. Community and art are central to Day of the Dead, and I believe Australians can learn from these aspects of it. </p>
<p>The Day of the Dead’s origins can be traced to ancient times. Unlike in many Western cultures, here, death is the guest of honour – and like birth, it is viewed as a natural event in the cycle of life. Symbols of death and mortality, such as skeletons, are part of the festivities.</p>
<p><em>Ofrendas</em> are the centrepiece of Day of the Dead festivities. Decorated like a Christmas tree, <em>ofrendas</em> traditionally hold flowers, candles, photos of the deceased as well as their favourite food items – as well as <em>pan de muertos</em> (“bread of the dead”), a sweet bread shaped into round loaves with faces made of coloured dough.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191770/original/file-20171025-5863-1s7d4b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191770/original/file-20171025-5863-1s7d4b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191770/original/file-20171025-5863-1s7d4b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191770/original/file-20171025-5863-1s7d4b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191770/original/file-20171025-5863-1s7d4b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191770/original/file-20171025-5863-1s7d4b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191770/original/file-20171025-5863-1s7d4b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191770/original/file-20171025-5863-1s7d4b6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traditional <em>ofrenda</em>, includes crimson cockscomb and gold marigold flowers (known by some as ‘flower of the dead’) and food items such as tamales (top left) and <em>pan de muertos</em> (top centre). Oaxaca, Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Copyright Colleen Nordstrom</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After a symposium discussing the Day of the Dead in Melbourne, participants told us that learning about the Mexican tradition had helped them deal with their own grief. </p>
<p>One told how she’d had “very little experience of death” but thought that it provided a “good supportive mechanism” for her to “think about death while celebrating life”. In retrospect, she can now see how it helped her cope with the recent diagnosis of “a very serious cancer” in a young family member. At first, she said, “I was freaking out” but she was able to quickly reframe her thoughts into something more “productive, not just doom and gloom”. </p>
<p>Another participant was transformed by the experience. She said, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>we don’t always want to share death or talk about it so this made me look at it in a different light. Something new was being offered, a new awareness, a new way of looking at death and dying and grieving. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>When her sister died a few months ago, she credits her new thinking to how it “helped get me through”. She concludes, “I can honestly say it’s not logically something you can explain. I can only tell you how it made me feel”.</p>
<h2>Need for ritual</h2>
<p>Death-related rituals play a crucial <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201403/can-rituals-help-us-deal-grief">social function in communities</a>. Anthropologists and sociologists have long argued that funeral and grief rituals have existed in every society, for as long as history records. Rituals maintain stability during times of personal chaos. They provide a social container for the expression and containment of strong emotions. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191763/original/file-20171025-5813-6x8a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191763/original/file-20171025-5813-6x8a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191763/original/file-20171025-5813-6x8a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191763/original/file-20171025-5813-6x8a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191763/original/file-20171025-5813-6x8a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191763/original/file-20171025-5813-6x8a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191763/original/file-20171025-5813-6x8a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191763/original/file-20171025-5813-6x8a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian example of a Mexican-inspired <em>ofrenda</em>. Carol Jones (nee Penglis), <em>Día de los Muertos Ofrenda</em> (detail), 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph: Karen Annett-Thomas</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In response to violent deaths in Australia, such as the 2014 <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/sydney-siege-lasting-floral-memorial-to-honour-lindt-cafe-victims-at-martin-place/news-story/61b42db99a34e398750874189a7c8043">Lindt cafe hostage crisis</a> in Sydney, even if the dead are strangers to us, we leave flowers and cards in public spaces not typically reserved for mourning. These “spontaneous shrines” are personally motivated, and are not initiated or encouraged by officials. </p>
<p>Unexpected death calls us to remember that – like the ephemeral art created for Day of the Dead and its use of fresh-cut flowers – life is short. And it can end at any time. </p>
<p>We urgently need our community to consider the topics of death and grief. Aspects of Day of the Dead allow us – through respectful cultural appreciation and exchange – to think through our relationships to each other. In the face of our shared mortality, that can only be a good thing. </p>
<p>Everyone need not necessarily take up celebrating Day of the Dead, in whole, or in part - individuals may have other rich cultural practices to draw upon. But to ignore the wisdom offered by this ancient tradition, especially in the absence of personally meaningful, death-related rituals, misses an important opportunity, and I would argue, is foolhardy.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Colleen is speaking at the “Romancing the Skull” exhibition’s Day of the Dead Festival at the <a href="https://artgalleryofballarat.com.au/gallery_events/twilight-talk-colleen-nordstrom/">Art Gallery of Ballarat</a> on November 1, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colleen Nordstrom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Australia has few public rituals around death, leaving people to figure out how to process grief alone. But Mexico’s Day of the Dead, with its focus on art and community, could help us cope better.
Colleen Nordstrom, Lecturer in Palliative Care, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/72337
2017-07-20T10:15:00Z
2017-07-20T10:15:00Z
The enduring power and tragedy of Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano, 70 years on
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178628/original/file-20170718-10334-1lm85a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/comefilm/16573105381">Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Under the Volcano by the British novelist and poet Malcolm Lowry is considered one of the most influential novels of the 20th century. But given the wrangling that took place during the book’s development, it’s a miracle that it was ever published. </p>
<p>The book took Lowry years and many rewrites to complete, and even then faced many rejections. In a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/515703/pdf">famous letter to Jonathan Cape</a>, who eventually published the book in 1947, Lowry remains defiant. He was an expert letter writer and often spent more time on these than on his novels. The publisher had suggested various rewrites to the manuscript and Lowry replied with a 32-page response detailing precisely (and with consummate literary skill) how and why it was not possible for him to change a word, how all of it was “absolutely necessary”. Incredibly, the publisher relented. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178630/original/file-20170718-10341-7udts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178630/original/file-20170718-10341-7udts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178630/original/file-20170718-10341-7udts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178630/original/file-20170718-10341-7udts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178630/original/file-20170718-10341-7udts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178630/original/file-20170718-10341-7udts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178630/original/file-20170718-10341-7udts1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/42158477@N02/4888589498">Alistair Leadbetter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>When the novel finally came out, it unhappily clashed with the publication of <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/85869/the-lost-weekend-by-charles-jackson/9780307948717/">The Lost Weekend by Charles R Jackson</a>, another tale of a hopeless alcoholic (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037884/">adapted into a successful film</a> by Billy Wilder). Nevertheless, critics hailed the novel as a masterpiece and Lowry was contracted for his next book. For a brief time, Under the Volcano was even a set text for anyone studying English language and literature. But Lowry never recovered from the strain of having to follow-up his classic work. He could not, as it were, scale and conquer such a monumental peak again.</p>
<p>2017 marks the 70th anniversary of the novel’s publication and the 60th anniversary of the death of its author. A <a href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/conferences/malcolm-lowry-conference">conference on Malcolm Lowry</a> is being held in his birthplace of Liverpool to commemorate this anniversary and to explore the legacy that Under the Volcano has left.</p>
<h2>A life and death in Mexico</h2>
<p>The novel, set in Mexico on the Day of the Dead in 1938, details the final 24 hours in the life of a doomed British consul named Geoffrey Firmin. Firmin, a chronic alcoholic, is clearly based on Lowry himself, who, lacking the conventional work ethic and social conformity expected by his strict Methodist father, battled problems with drink and depression all his life. Firmin’s pathetic attempts at holding together a marriage, a career, and the promise and duty of his privileged upbringing against the backdrop of a looming World War ends in utter catastrophe. </p>
<p>The novel, retelling the previous year of Firmin’s shambolic life, details the psychology of a personal collapse as Firmin tries to escape a violent world he cannot understand. The volcano in the title actually refers to two volcanoes, the still-active Popocatepetl and dormant Iztaccihuatl, which loom ominously over the town of Quauhnahuac – more commonly known as Cuernavaca – south of Mexico City, where the events of the book are set.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NKtcnHIImvQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>One of the underlying themes of the book is the occult. Numbers fascinated Lowry and the 12 chapter structure of the novel is significant. As Lowry explained in his letter to Cape, this represents the 12 hours in a day (most of the action happens on a single day) and the 12 months of the year (the novel also looks back over the previous year). The novel uses <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/nietzsch">Nietzsche</a> and <a href="http://ggurdjieff.com/ouspensky/">Ouspensky’s</a> concept of <a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/29/Nietzsche_and_the_Eternal_Recurrence">eternal recurrence</a> or circular time: it opens in the present day, but then spools back to the same point a year earlier, giving the sense that Firmin is repeating the same futile trajectory over and over again. Lowry was a student of the esoteric Jewish <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/170308/jewish/What-is-Kabbalah.htm">Kabbalah</a> sect, within which the number 12 is of symbolic importance. “I have to have my 12,” Lowry argues, since “it is as if I hear a clock slowly striking midnight for Faust”.</p>
<p>Another theme is the hallucinatory aspect of the novel which fascinated subversives, particularly in France where the translated version was, and still is, warmly received. Lowry vividly recounts Firmin’s numerous mescal-infused visions, and the final tragic scenes of the novel pass by as if a dream, or more accurately, a nightmare. </p>
<p>The French avant-garde lettrist and situationist writers were so taken with Under the Volcano that they devised various drinking games to mimic the Consul’s nocturnal ramblings. These consciousness-altering adventures, chaotic rejections of the status quo, were later theorised as the “dérive” (drift) and formalised in the practice of <a href="https://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/a.evans/psychogeog.html">psychogeography</a> – a now somewhat fashionable technique for academics and novelists such as <a href="https://bloomsbury.com/uk/psychogeography-9781408837337/">Will Self</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/21/featuresreviews.guardianreview6">Iain Sinclair</a>.</p>
<h2>Art imitating life</h2>
<p>Lowry’s own personal fate echoed that of his writing. In many ways, Lowry did not help himself. Many of his key works were lost, mislaid, forgotten or destroyed by fire (Lowry admitted in a letter how that particular infernal element seemed to “follow him around”). His only respite was his brief time living in a shack near Dollarton, Vancouver. Photographs of him near the end show a man hollowed out by existence. He died in <a href="http://planetpeschel.com/2009/06/malcolm-lowrys-mysterious-death-1957/">mysterious circumstances aged 57</a> in Ripe, Sussex.</p>
<p>Under the Volcano is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/sep/18/reading-group-malcolm-lowry-under-the-volcano">difficult modernist work to get into</a>, and was soon dropped from the teaching curriculum. Yet it has inspired film adaptations – including John Houston’s 1984 film starring Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset – cabarets, and even a jazz suite:</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Graham Collier’s The Day of the Dead, inspired by Under the Volcano.</span></figcaption>
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<p>A small group of dedicated scholars from North America is developing new perspectives on Lowry including critical editions of his <a href="https://press.uottawa.ca/malcolm-lowry.html">lost novels Swinging the Maelstrom, In Ballast to the White Sea</a> and an earlier version of his masterpiece Under the Volcano, together with a brand new set of essays, <a href="https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/35740/1/9780776623412_WEB.pdf">Malcolm Lowry’s Poetics of Space</a>. Meanwhile, writers, poets and artists from Lowry’s hometown, Liverpool, have issued a handsome tome, <a href="https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/collections/all-art-and-sculpture/products/60508">Malcolm Lowry From the Mersey to the World</a>, about the global dimension to Lowry’s work.</p>
<p>Under the Volcano may be neglected – but to anyone of a certain age it has a powerful resonance, and still has the power to enthrall new generations of readers today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72337/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Goodall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
How has Malcolm Lowry’s novel stood the test of time?
Mark Goodall, Head of Film and Media, University of Bradford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/33705
2014-10-31T19:48:01Z
2014-10-31T19:48:01Z
La Llorona: Hispanic folklore goes mainstream
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63416/original/6x8wkk35-1414772413.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C29%2C3217%2C1594&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">La Llorona Durmiente, oil on canvas, 2012 </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hector Garza</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than 500 years, she has wandered, weeping and searching without rest. A ghostly woman in white who is said to have murdered her children, she is doomed to roam the earth, searching for their lost bodies. Though the ghost woman may never recover her own dead children, she will snatch other living ones to take their place, or so the story goes of La Llorona.</p>
<p>Each year around Halloween and Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), our thoughts turn to the undead and spirits walking among us. One day focuses on costumes and candy. The other is a Mexican tradition rooted in Indigenous practices that involve formally remembering the dead through offerings of food, drink, and celebration.</p>
<h2>Into the mainstream</h2>
<p>La Llorona, the weeping woman, is a figure familiar to many Latinos. Dressed in a tattered long gown with a wild mass of hair and razor-sharp fingernails, she is terrifying. Her story is told and retold to entertain, frighten, and even discipline.</p>
<p>Naughty children are told, “Behave or La Llorona will get you!”</p>
<p>A longstanding member of the Latino community, La Llorona has slowly - over the last 15 years - been making her way into the cultural mainstream.</p>
<p>NBC, for example, recently announced that <a href="http://deadline.com/2014/10/eva-longoria-supernatural-anthology-series-hispanic-folklore-nbc-849228#u=http://deadline.com/2014/10/eva-longoria-supernatural-anthology-series-hispanic-folklore-nbc-849228;k=pmc-adi-31bb2464aad8b905af7a81e1d57b77ae">a new anthology</a> series by Eva Longoria, “inspired by the rich world of Hispanic folklore and myth,” is in development. The series with its American Horror Story-like structure will focus on a different tale or figure each season, the first of which, you’ve guessed it, will be about La Llorona.</p>
<p>La Llorona’s image now appears on such products as <a href="http://www.coffeeshopofhorrors.com/mexican-altura-8-ounce-bag-la-llorona">coffee</a>, <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/dd/20764607">T-shirts</a>, <a href="http://society6.com/product/la-llorona--the-cry-g1c_pillow?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=1027&gclid=CMihnI_oy8ECFcpcMgodVhQAoQ#25=193&18=126">throw pillows</a>, <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/208346559/mythical-la-llorona-pendant-sterling?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted&utm_campaign=jewelry-pendant-resin-low&ione_adtype=pla&ione_creative=54864716435&ione_product_id=208346559&ione_product_parti">jewelry</a>, and infant <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/208346559/mythical-la-llorona-pendant-sterling?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted&utm_campaign=jewelry-pendant-resin-low&ione_adtype=pla&ione_creative=54864716435&ione_product_id=208346559&ione_product_parti">onesies</a>, which ensures the continuation and further widens the reach of the story.</p>
<p>Two years ago, actor Diego Luna’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PARg0XkG-rA">La Llorona: Villa De Almas Perdidas</a> was an attraction at the Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights. Designed as a walkthrough maze, people wended their way through a village that featured key elements of the folklore, including small bodies floating in water, various figures weeping, and, of course, La Llorona herself. Last year Universal Studios Orlando included its own La Llorona-themed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ziOGDLS1vU">Halloween maze</a>.</p>
<p>La Llorona’s inclusion at such popular tourist attractions is perhaps representative of the growing influence and recognition of Mexican American culture within the mainstream.</p>
<p>Further evidence of this crossover can be found in the 2012 “La Llorona” episode of the NBC hit series <a href="http://grimm.wikia.com/wiki/La_Llorona">Grimm</a>. 6.1 million <a href="http://grimm.wikia.com/wiki/Grimm_Episode_Ratings#Season_2">viewers</a> tuned in to watch, making it the fourth highest-rated episode to date.</p>
<p>Another, more humorous, take on the story came in 2001 from Latino students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California who developed a La Llorona version of the then popular ‘<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erhsuXTyDww">Got Milk</a>?’ ads. The commercial shows La Llorona crying because she has no milk to accompany her pan dulce, Mexican sweet bread.</p>
<h2>Ancient origins</h2>
<p>Various permutations of a wandering, wailing-woman-in-white story have existed for centuries in the New World, linking her to Aztec goddesses and dating back to a time before the arrival of Spaniards. Others contend her story is Old World in origin with roots in German folktales or Ancient Greek myth.</p>
<p>The infanticide, a key part of the story, is La Llorona’s revenge for being abandoned by her lover, according to some versions. So while she searches for her children, she also seeks out other men as potential prey.</p>
<p>La Llorona is said to appear as an alluring woman who entices and welcomes men’s advances, only later revealing her true murderous intentions. Those who narrowly escape La Llorona’s clutches often offer their stories as cautionary tales.</p>
<p>While stories about a predatory woman may exist in cultures around the world, Latinos, Mexicans and Mexican Americans in particular, have documented encounters, shared folktales, and created representations of La Llorona, including songs, plays, dances, poetry, novels, films, comics, and art.</p>
<p>One example is San Antonio based artist <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hector-Garza/141064689294813?sk=photos_stream">Hector Garza</a>. He combines popular Mexican themes and icons, including La Llorona, calaveras (representations of the human skull) and Frida Kahlo, with loteria (the Mexican game of chance) cards, comic book figures, and Star Wars, rendering them in a graphic playful style. Garza’s social realism paintings draw inspiration from Mexican social realist painters like Diego Rivera and J<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Alfaro_Siqueiros">osé David Siqueros</a>. Both styles of art represent a way of reconnecting with <a href="http://www.bluecanvas.com/hgarza06">his Mexican roots.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63419/original/wcj2cfgn-1414778070.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63419/original/wcj2cfgn-1414778070.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63419/original/wcj2cfgn-1414778070.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63419/original/wcj2cfgn-1414778070.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63419/original/wcj2cfgn-1414778070.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63419/original/wcj2cfgn-1414778070.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63419/original/wcj2cfgn-1414778070.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Star Wars’ Princesa Leya meets La Llorona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Acrylic on canvas 2013</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Hispanic culture’s relationship to death and dying may seem morbid to some, but these stories and celebrations are an affirmation of life. The grinning calaveras or laughing images of Death remind us to live each day fully, thoughtfully. Death is not to be feared. </p>
<p>Rather than fleeing from or avoiding La Llorona, we now can check local listings to invite her into our homes. Let’s hope she’s a hit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Domino Renee Perez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For more than 500 years, she has wandered, weeping and searching without rest. A ghostly woman in white who is said to have murdered her children, she is doomed to roam the earth, searching for their lost…
Domino Renee Perez, Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies and Associate Professor, Department of English and Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.