Dia de los Muertos

An educational thread for my mutuals

Disclaimer: This thread isn’t going to be super in depth (mostly because I’m pretty tired) It’s gonna just have the basics of the holiday and some resources for you if you choose to delve deeper into learning about this holiday and it’s traditions

What is Dia de Los Muertos?

Dia de los Muertos is a two day celebration where we honor the dead and share memories we have of them. There is one day for babies/young children (Nov 1st) and another day for adults (Nov 2nd).

This holiday is sort of tied to catholicism so these days are recognized as All Saints Day and All Souls Day in the Catholic church. There’s a lot of debate about whether this holiday is purely indigenous or a blend of indigenous culture with Spanish culture.

Personally, I’m not quite sure but I’d like to think it mostly is indigenous because of a lot of the things used for ofrendas and the offerings given to the dead. It’s ties to catholicism are also debatable which you can read further in the helpful links

What is an ofrenda?

Ofrendas are altars for our loved ones. We decorate these altars and leave offerings for the dead or we take the offerings to their graves. We also clean their graves and remove trash from the graveyards.

Offerings consist of things such as food, toys for the young children, or their favorite things from when they were alive which can range from beer/cigarettes to physical items like maybe jewelry, clothing or something they made when they were alive.

Usually these altars are decorated with marigolds, photos of the deceased family members, sugar skulls, the offerings, and pan de muertos. Not everyone makes these altars some prefer to just bring offerings to the cemetery which is fine as long as there is no trash left behind.

Who is La Catrina?

La Catrina is a little difficult to explain but she is actually a representation of the goddess of death, Mictecacihuatl. The articles linked further down explain what/who she is a little better than I can because it’s a little hard to explain.

Her current image and representation is a bit different present day which is why it’s a little hard to explain. She’s sort of viewed a lot more as a symbol of how we view death. I really hope anyone of you who read this far will check out the articles. They explain things better.

Helpful resources:

https://dayofthedead.holiday 

https://mexicansugarskull.com/pages/history-of-day-of-the-dead-dia-de-los-muertos

https://theconversation.com/day-of-the-dead-from-aztec-goddess-worship-to-modern-mexican-celebration-124962

Small note: Depending on where someone lives in mx and how their family views the holiday it is celebrated differently. My parents are from two different areas of mx so I have a weird mix of all the traditions.