Día De Los Muertos is considered a blend of Meso-American rituals, Spanish culture and European religions. It started as an Aztec festival around 3,000 years ago. The Aztecs used skulls to honor their dead, and the skull is still the main symbol of the Día de los Muertos festival today.

Día de los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico, Central America and in places where there is a large population from those countries – Los Angeles and New York in the United States, for example.

According to Día de los Muertos tradition, the gates of heaven open at midnight on October 31st for 24 hours, and on November 1st the spirits of deceased children can join their loved ones. On November 2, it is the spirits of deceased adults who are in the company of their loved ones. This happens because it is believed that the boundary between the real world and the spiritual world will dissolve at this special time.

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Ofrendas (Attars)

To welcome them, people prepare altars ('ofrendas') for their relatives and friends who have passed away. A soft light from lit candles illuminates the photographs of the deceased, and there are çampasuchil flowers (marigolds) around the altar, as well as burning copal incense, all to guide the spirit home with strong smells. The altar features all kinds of favorite foods and drinks – things like tamales, chiles, tequila and pan de muerto. The names of the dead are written on skulls shaped from clay and decorated with feathers, foil and frosting. There are symbols that represent the four elements: earth, wind, water and fire. Sometimes, a crucified cross or an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe (Mexico's patron saint) can also be seen on the altar. Family members read letters and poems and tell serious stories and jokes about the dead they are commemorating.

Families clean the graves at the cemeteries, and on the night of November 2, people bring food and drink there to attract the spirits and join in the public celebration.

Bands play music and people dance to entertain the visiting souls.

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Día de los Muertos compared to Halloween

Halloween is celebrated on October 31st, the night before Día de los Muertos begins. The Church has long had festivals on November 1 – All Saints Day, and November 2 – Day of the Dead, and it seems that the Church subsumed Samhain and Día de los Muertos into these, given the similar theme with its emphasis on the dead. In the case of Día de los Muertos, the emphasis used to be on welcoming deceased loved ones and celebrating their lives. In the case of Halloween, on the other hand, the emphasis used to be on ghosts and ways to avoid them. Therefore, there were different customs in both cases.

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Día de los Muertos in Tijuana

I visited Tijuana in Mexico this year on November 1st, and saw for myself the locals celebrating Día de los Muertos. It's a public holiday in Mexico, and there was a celebratory and friendly atmosphere everywhere. We visited a primary school, and events were held there to celebrate the dead. The pupils and teachers had their faces painted, and all were wearing colorful costumes. The students gave us great performances – singing, dancing, and walking in the festival parade.

There was also an 'ofrenda' in one room in the school, where they celebrated the life of a teacher who died of COVID. It really impressed me.

When we were about to leave, we received a few invitations from families to come with them to see their 'ofrenda'. I felt it was a great privilege, and we received a true welcome everywhere. Those people I met that day didn't have much, and they reminded me of the stories my father told me about his own people in Erris in County Mayo when he was young. They didn't have much either, but there was a strong bond between them, and they were very friendly people. Despite the great challenges in their own lives, they would share what they had with you. Isn't that a good suggestion for all of us – to open our hearts to everyone!

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Halloween!

The Celts believed that the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead became blurred on the night of October 31, when they celebrated Samhain, the time when one year would die and a new year would be born.

To commemorate the event, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic gods. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, usually with skulls and animal skins, and tried to tell each other's fortunes.

There is no doubt in the world that the bountiful and generous Autumn, which gave us fruits, corn, and numerous crops, for the past three months, has come to an end, and that we have now come to the threatening, troubling brink, the season of cold and hardship . It is not surprising then, that at this time of the year the human being thinks about the mortality of his race, and about his own mysterious destiny as a living being, living in a worldly domain, limited by the gates of time and the space, constantly attracted by the Utopian vision of the other world, a world not limited by the constraints of space or time, but existing as a magnet, to draw us constantly towards eternity. From all that, one would understand that the seasons are there to give us an opportunity to think about the different periods of human life.

In Spring, we see nature waking up from the peaceful, sleepy sleep of Winter. In the beginning of Spring, we have only to notice a cold, wild desert, waking from a cold, long sleep, the frozen flesh, through which the unquenchable flame of life is successfully borne through dark, mortal portals, to a living light the bright sun. That is just the beginning, as from that point on, every plant and flower flourishes and grows until the country is covered with crops, and with colors of every type.

Blooming of Life

That renewed life continues to grow and ripen through the bright, lrestful days of Summer, until all of nature is overflowing, with crops and fruits, until the branches are bowing to the ground with the weight of ripe fruit and perfect flowers, but each day stretches its finger towards the coming Harvest, and a hawk's eye is kept on matters, and in the ripe, fruitful days of the Autumn is performed the reaping, the harvesting, the gathering, and the stacking, so that we have a sufficiently large store of food stored for the Winter.

Féile na Samhna gives a festive start to the season of decay and death. In the old days, eating blackberries was taboo from Halloween onwards. Spades, shovels, scythes, sickles, and other farming implements were put aside, as they would not be needed again until after St. Bridget’s s Day. Bit by bit, leaves, flowers, and vegetation of all kinds decay and decompose, until in the end, only bare limbs and veins, are visible between us and the light.

Silence

A complete silence falls on the stirring, soulful music of the birds, and around us we see only our old friends, the robins, wrens and sparrows, but even in the case of those same birds, their music loses its spirit, the challenge, and the vitality, which they contain during the seasons of growth, flourishing and maturity. This is also the season when humanity is tormented with its stinging, painful cold, a cold that goes to our very core. But, above all, this is the season that reminds humanity that it does not have a permanent city in this Valley of Tears, as they can see how flora and fauna; leaves and flowers all wither and die; yes, and how the weather affects all living beings, slowing them down, silencing them, and weakening them, and even, how nature (itself) is not let sleep during this whole season by some petty folk, so that they can survive far into the future.. But, if Winter is the season of death and sleep, it is also the season of life and hope, as we understand that it will not be long before the creatures of nature will be revived again, in the glorious, colorful resurrection of Spring. Patience and hope is what we need during the Winter season, or as the old saying goes, 'God's grace comes with patience' and 'patience gets strength'.