Mexico’s Festive Attraction – Day of the Dead

A celebration is a celebration, whether that of culture, history, or religion, or may be all three together. Festivals are simple excuses to let all your expression out, in the company of colors. And what if it’s a unique festival of a yet unexplored place, which you get to be a part of?  Imagine yourself enjoying the local, but great, festival of a country in between your trip to it. Isn’t that just wonderful? Yeah? Then you are the lucky one to now more about one of the traditional and the most interesting festival of a Central American country – Mexico’s Day of the Dead festival!

The beginning of November marks the most out-of-the-world kind of festival for Mexican Families – Día de los Muertos i.e. Day of the Dead. It may sound one like the Halloween, but it’s a lot different from that. It’s a festival that spans over for two days, the days being declared as public holidays for the citizens. During this festival, the Mexican families gather along with their relatives and friends, remembering their dead family members. They welcome back the dead into their homes, providing feasts for them. They also visit cemeteries with joyous picnics and decorate the grave areas of their dead close ones. People spend the day getting together with their families and telling their children and grand children, the stories of their ancestors. Though it is called the Day of the Dead, there is nothing gothic about it. In fact, the atmosphere throughout the country is quite festive as, or even more than, other festivals. There are two days of the festival, the first being the day which families celebrate in the memory of their dead children, and the second, for the dead elder members. Special foods and sweets, in the unusual shapes of skulls or skeletons, are prepared for family feasts. Some families also build shrines of flowers and offerings of the memorables’ favorite alcohol, sweets and cigarettes.

People of Mexico have been celebrating this festival since over 3, 000 years. The origin of this festival seems to come from the Aztec festival. In pre-Hispanic era, to keep skulls as if displaying trophies during the rituals, was a common practice in order to symbolize the significance of death and rebirth. The native Aztecs and Mesoamerican people celebrated these kinds of festivals because hey considered death as not an end, but a continuation, of life. The Aztec calendar shows the beginning of the present time Day of the Dead festival in the month of August and it continued for a whole month. This festival was celebrated as a dedication to the Goddess known as “Lady of the Dead” who corresponds to the modern Catrina.

The celebration in the honor and memory of the departed family members and friends descended from old times and continue till day, every year on the first two days of November. This festival is celebrated in connection with the two other important days, The All Saints’ Day on the 1st of Nov. and the All Souls’ Day on the 2nd. The 1st  Nov. day is known by the natives of this country as Day of the Innocents or Day of the Little Angels, celebrated in memory of dead little children, and the 2nd of Nov. is known as the Day of the Dead, celebrated for deceased adults. Apart from the Mexicans, people from certain parts of the United States and Central America also celebrate this festival.