Day of the Dead (and a little Halloween, too)

Video clip -- Ocotepec Cemetery on November 2nd


Halloween -- which day is it, exactly?

Jacob and Sabine were much more concerned about whether they were going to get to go Trick-or-treating this year, than whether the Día de Muertos would be an interesting cultural event. Their friends at school assured them that yes, lots of kids go "Pidiendo Halloween" (asking for Halloween), although some kids told them it was on November 1st. We went with a classmate of Sabine's and her cousins. As we left our apartment complex in costumes around dark, ours were the only kids on the street in costume. The first neighborhood we went to (a gated community) didn't allow entry without a "Halloween invitation." The kids were quite disappointed, but fortunately we found another apartment complex in the area that was participating in Halloween. Afterwards, Sabine was tired, but Jacob and I took a taxi to the center plaza of Coyoacán, where some other parents at their school said that kids ask for candy. Sure enough, when we arrived at 9:00 the plaza was crouded with kids in costumes and adults strolling
around.

The rest of the weekend (Nov.1 and 2) as we attended various Day of the Dead events, children continued to ask for candy. Apparently there is a Mexican tradition associated with Day of the Dead in which children (not in costumes) walk around "Pidiendo Calaverita" (asking for a little skull). Traditionally children would ask for money which they would use to buy the traditional sugar skulls or Pan de Muerto (bread of the dead), to eat or for their "ofrendas" (offerings/altars). In Cuernavaca, a town outside of Mexico City, where we spent the weekend, all of the kids in town would ask for their "Calaverita" with a set song/rhyme:


La Calavera tiene hambre

No hay un huesito por ahí?

. . .

Of course, a concern of many people is that the American festival of Halloween is invading/corrupting the traditional Mexican festival. A number of families I met have made an effort to allow their kids to celebrate Halloween (costumes, etc.) on one day, but then also have an altar in their home and visit the cemetery of relatives who have passed away, to preserve the essence of the traditional Mexican Day of the Dead.

Día de los Muertos

In the week leading up to Day of the Dead, which is formally November 2nd, public "ofrendas" are set up all over the city -- in city plazas, in museums, in schools, etc. The main plaza of Mexico City is famous for its Monumental Ofrendas that different city organizations put together.

The town of Ocotepec, a town on the outskirts of Cuernavaca is one of many in Mexico that still preserve a very traditional celebration of Day of the Dead. We were fortunate that another fulbrighter, had a colleague in Cuernavaca that showed us one of the Ocotepec traditions -- the Ofrendas Nuevas (New Offerings).

Families that have someone who has passed away in the passed year set up a large Altar in their home to the deceased with a bed, their clothing, etc. and they open their home and ofrenda the night of November 1st for everyone in the community to see and have something to eat or drink with them. We bought candles at a little street stand to give as gifts to the homes we would visit. We started the evening at the small colonial church in Ocotepec where a large crowd gathered outside to watch a group of Aztec Dancers, and then walked the streets near the church where we visited 2 or 3 Ofrendas nuevas, as noise-making fire-crackers were set off overhead for a number of hours. Afterwards we walked through the cemetery, where a few tombs were decorated with candles, but which was fairly deserted -- November 2nd is the day everyone would visit and decorate their family's tombs.

The next morning, by the time we arrived at the Panteón de Ocotepec (cemetery) street vendors where set up outside selling food and zempasuchiles (yellow marigolds). The cemetery was full of families cleaning tombs, decorating, and musicians performing. The cemetary itself would be impressive enough on a normal day--for the variety of tombs that have been set up over the years.

For more of our photos with explanation, click on the "Día de los Muertos" photo album under "our photos" at upper right.

(Blog readers--we would be interested in comments on our experiences with Day of the Dead, especially regarding comparison with other areas of Mexico and Nov 2 in other Latin American countries, the origin of "Pidiendo Calaverita", etc.)