ROOTS OF THE DIA DE LOS MUERTOS:

DAY OF THE DEAD CELEBRATION TODAY 

Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico (particularly in Central and Southern Mexico) over a two day period: November 1st (Dia de los Angelitos dedicated to deceased children) and 2nd (Dia de los Muertos dedicated to deceased adults).  Today, Dia day Los Muertos is celebrated by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere throughout the world as well. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pray for, remember, and honor friends and family members who have died.  Today, traditions connected with the holiday include building altars called ofrendas.  Oferendas are build in people’s homes or in public spaces.  During this time people also visit cemeteries to clean the gravesite or headstone of a deceased loved one and decorate their grave with gifts such as calaveras (skulls), calacas (skulls), strings of marigolds, the favorite foods and beverages of the departed.  Visitors also leave possessions of the deceased at the graves.  In some regions there are parades and women dress as Catrinas in lavish gowns, their faces painted.  The parades include music and performance dancing.  Today, Dia De Los Muertos is a time for those in the mortal realm to help support the spiritual journey of the dead.  In Mexican culture, death is viewed as a natural part of the human cycle.  Mexicans view this holiday not as a day of sadness, but as a day of celebration.

The Dia De Los Muertos holiday of today is a product of the different faiths and traditions of both indigenous people of Mexico (dating back thousands of years), Roman Catholicisim (dating back hundreds of years), and modern culture mixing over time.  In the case of celebrating life and death in today’s Dia de los Muertos, the roots of these indigenous and traditional beliefs go back thousands of years to indigenous Aztec people of what is now central and southern Mexico.  The Aztecs did not see death as the end of one’s existence, rather, another stage of one’s life.  One can not live without death and one cannot die without living.  It is thought that they believed that the realm of the living world, the divine, and the spirit world all exist.  Originally, Día de los Muertos was the entire ninth month of the Aztec calendar. The Aztecs dedicated the month to honoring both the people that would reincarnate as well as the god that allowed humans to reincarnate. In particular, they honored the god Mictlantecuhtli. The festivities celebrating it were known as Miccailhuitontli or Huey Micailhuitl, which translates to ‘The Great Feast of the Dead’.

According to the Great Nahuatl Dictionary, Mictlán means underworld.  Others translate MICTLÁN as “place of the dead.”  Different legends, visual representations and ancient codices define Mictlán as an unknown, dangerous and dark place, which has nine levels. In this worldview, the Earth was considered a being that devoured the flesh of the deceased.  At the time of death, the deceased was thought to be paying off their debt with the Earth, since when they died, they gave continuity to the cycle of the universe.  These nine levels are related to rot, fetid, cold, damp, watery, darkness, and night. The animals related to the Mictlán were owls, bats, worms and centipedes, which were in the service of Mictlantecuhtli and his consort Mictecacíhuatl.​

The Nine Levels:

1. Itzcuintlan

    Place of the dogs

2. Tepectli monamictlan

    Place of the hills that come together

 3. Iztepetl

      Hills of the very sharp flints

4. Itzehecayan

      Place of the obsidian wind

5. Paniecatacoyan

      Place where people fly like flags

6. Timiminaloayan

      Place where people are smitten

7. Teocoyohuehualoyan

     Where the jaguars eat your heart

8. Izmictlan Apochcalolca

      Smoke water lagoon

9. Chicunamictla

     The nine waters.

Death was seen in the underworld of the Aztec world view where much transpires.  Over thousands of years this worldview has maintained life in the spirituality if indigenous people of Mexico.  500 years ago, when the Spanish empire colonized what is now Mexico they brought with them Catholicism and made a devout effort to introduce and convert indigenous people to this faith and view of the world.  Churches were built and people were brought into the Catholic religion.   Catholicism celebrates All Saints’ Day (November 1) and All Souls’ Day (November 2), both of which also commemorate those who have passed.  These celebrations commemorating those that have passed is an area in which the Catholic faith and the indigenous faith found common ground.  It’s a syncretism, where indigenous religious practices have merged with the Christian belief systems introduced, or opposed, by the Spanish during the colonial era.  There are actually many examples of syncretism throughout Mexico, most notably found at the main church in San Juan de Chamula in Chiapas.  While the details and beliefs around death and the afterlife diverge greatly the people of Mexico today have a celebration in Dia de los Muertos that has roots spanning thousands of years of indigenous spirituality, hundreds of years or Catholic religious influence, and the modern constant of cultural expression.