What is Day of the Dead?

Writer: Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut
Editor: Mark Henry
Executive Producers: Daniel Cuevas, Jay Gotschalk
Producers: Lyndsay Ballew

Further Reading:
R. Andrew Chesnut, "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint," 2011.

[dandiaz]

One practice people new to Dia de los Muertos often dont know is the practice of funny death poetry. Where you make witty rhymes about someone and the punchline is them dying in a humorous way.

[alalrual]

The social class distinction is interesting, but I think the other factor that makes the celebration of Dia de muertos more complex is the regional differences of Mexico. Dia de muertos originated in the center and south of Mexico, and its celebration has been pushed in the school curriculum and churches in the Northwest as a national alternative to Halloween. There are religious reasons for this, but there's also the Government-led construction of a unified Mexican identity. The difference between a cemetery in Oaxaca and one in Tijuana on Dia de muertos is striking

[AJJuly]

My family celebrates Dia de Los Muertos every year. We celebrate by setting up our ofrenda w/pictures, the favorite foods & beverages, & belongings of our loved ones that passed away. My mom & I have been working on making paper marigolds since the fresh ones can be difficult to get your hands on in the days leading up to the day. We're in the US so some of the traditions have been changed, but we still celebrate in our own way at home with our family.

[diegog]

I think this tradition is overall very healthy. Taking some time to remember the people that is gone and to celebrate getting to know them in the first place. Who doesn't want to be remembered after death, how you looked, what you liked, and to people to feel happy remembering you.
Of course there is sorrow involved, but also there is a lot to look forward to to soften the hit. Children eat sweets while they learn what death is and who was their grandfather or grandmother or whoever else. They learn to live with the concept as something natural.
I used to not think much of the day of the death when I was growing up in Mexico, but I've grown to really appreciate its values as an adult

[Courier]

We have something similar here in the Philippines that we celebrate around October 31 to November 2. We call it "Undas" During this time of year, we visit our dead relatives' graves at least once. We usually bring flowers or candles to decorate the tombstones and offer a rosary prayer. We also bring food for us to eat since we will be there for hours talking about our memories with the disease, reminiscing about the past, or catching up with our other relatives. I'm no expert in our history, but I imagine that this is something that we got from our Spanish colonizers who in turn got it from the Mexicans.

[JorgeEmilio]

This vid is great! I'm from North Central Mexico where the population is very conservative and Catholic. In this region (Bajío), Día de Muertos is growing more popular and accepted, however, when I was a child, it was considered heretic or diabolic, and for many, it still is.
I believe it is a beautiful tradition but it must be observed and embraced responsibly to avoid erasing the rural and indigenous roots of it and turning it into some chic and exotic party.

[MikeJBeebe]

I'm surprised you didn't mention this in your video, but 'Book of Life' and 'CoCo' were preceded by the EA adventure game 'Grim Fandango' in which you play Manny Calaveras, the put-upon Reaper who must rescue a female skeleton based on La Calvera. Each chapter of the adventure takes place during Day of the Dead celebrations over four years. The game is considered one of the greatest adventure games of all time and even today, it's a total delight to play.

[joshuasims]

So Coco seems to be having the same effect on Dia de Muertos as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol had on Christmas. Interesting!

[wompa]

As a purely secular person (and having no Mexican heritage at all), I find a lot of comfort in Day of the Dead.

[SeporiBowi]

A couple things. It's not "sometimes" called Día de Muertos, it's always called that, as Spanish doesn't necessarily require the article "los" as English does "the", Día de los muertos it's the translation of a translation. Also, people in cities do visit their dearly departed in cemeteries during the festivities, it's not only in the rural zones. It's an activity that can take the whole day. I know ritual changes from place to place, and no two groups of people celebrate the same, but also there's no such a strict separation between the urban and rural traditions.

Oh, and if we're talking about movies, the movie "Macario" from 1960, produced during th Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, was and today still is a famous piece that popularized the celebration, so it's not only foreign films. It's a classic that still plays on TV every year during the season.

Final point, extremely personal, but I believe it is interesting, growing up Catholic, the priest always told us to celebrate Day of the Dead instead of Halloween, as Day of the Dead was a Catholic celebration, and Halloween was a Protestant one, so it's interesting how (from that particular priest point of view), those were two cultural and religious antagonists.

[ferrjuan]

As someone whose family comes from the state of Michoacán, Mexico I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t mention the island of Janitzio which is located within Lake Pátzcuaro. The island of Janitzio is known all throughout Mexico as the epicenter for Día de Muertos since it’s the island’s main festivity. As part of this festivity, candle-lit boat processions make their way to the island and then to Janitzio's Church and graveyard, remaining there for the night for a large festive vigil with much imbibing involved. Some of the people of Janitzio and the towns surrounding Lake Pátzcuaro are of indigenous descent and are known as Purépecha. Many of them speak the Purépecha language which currently is spoken by around 200, 000 people in the state of Michoacán.

[arenasnefi]

The video was spot on. It’s true that many people didn’t celebrate, or even derided Día de muertos.

In the 1930s, when my great grandfather was asked why he never placed an altar for the dead, he would say “eso es cosa de indios” (that’s a thing for Indians).

At home we never celebrated it growing up (nor did we celebrate Halloween). It wasn’t until very recently that I engaged for the first time in some home decoration for Día de muertos and mild celebration with my wife and kids.

[anthonyhoyos]

Man here in Ecuador is going to be a busy holiday. A lot of people have passed away, it is often celebrated drinking colada morada (hot or cold depending where you live) and eating guaguas (a especial type of bread)

[shelbybrown]

I work at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside Illinois it's across the street from the Mount Carmel Cemetery which has some fame because of Al Capone Frank Nitti and several other famous gangsters being buried there but I can attest that the Day of the Dead is an enormously important celebration for the Mexican-American community and they completely overtook the cemetery and on that day the cemetery basically looked like a community festival it was really interesting and we often got a lot of great food and interesting interactions with the folks there celebrating with their dead relatives but I also agree that until recently it was definitely a working-class working poor Community that celebrated it more than anybody else and I would definitely has a lot of kitsch but that happens when things get commercialized and popularized.

[josepnikoliesoliman]

Here in the Philippines we also do offerings like prayers, putting food on tombstones or altar for the departed on November 1 and 2. Venerating the souls of love ones since we're predominantly Catholics here

[patocolorado]

Dia de los Muertos has been an school festival since SEP (Public Education Bureau) instituted it during early XX century, based on a nacionalist agenda, more as a "national ancestral tradition" than a religious festival. Mexico has celebrated the All souls day just like any other catholic country for centuries, but, as any catholic country, syncretism has been present in rural areas.

Please remember that Mexico is a big, multicultural country .

Dia de los Muertos is molded around the Michoacan rural tradition, two mexican presidents on the thirties were from Michoacan (Ortiz Rubio and well know Lazaro Cardenas), so that's the reason why this tradition was prefered.

Later on as a rooted tradition Universities and mid class embraced the tradition and enriched it with elements like catrina, candies, poetry and more artistic designs, but most people do not build big altares de muertos, rather visit their death on cementeries to pry for them and decorate the tombs with flowers.

Altares de muertos are seen by most people as a cultural event and a competition to have the best one, be on schools, universities, cultural center or workplaces, not much like a true ancentral tradition and certanly not a required catholic practice.

[hugosapien]

I am 64 and grew up in Monterrey, Mexico. Very objective description of everything. I never experienced overnight vigils or the rites associated with Día de los Muertos. My grandmother's sister would travel 600 miles (an overnight bus ride back then) to visit her parents' grave. To this day, cemeteries are full and flowers (of any kind) hard to get Nov 1st and 2nd. They call it "Día de los Muertos", but the commemoration was more Catholic, "Fieles Difuntos, " the departed faithful.

[greentilde]

I’ve lived in Mexico for 34 years and let me tell ya, this video is really thorough and spot on. Excellent work as always 💀🎃🕯

[jonhelmer]

Back in the 1986 I traveled from London to Mexico for el Dia de los Muertos.
I went to Lake Patsquaru and spent the night in the cemetery partying with the living and the dead.
It was a profound experience.

[liberalinoklahoma]

Brings back memories of growing up by the Rio Grande, both sides, in the fifties and watching the beautiful floral displays and then there were the ' matachines ', people made up in colorful costumes performing dances and rituals .