El Dia de los Muertos

Day of the Dead Introduction

There's an old folk saying that there are three deaths, the death when the soul leaves the body, the burial of the body, and the final death when all memories of the dead one are gone.

These three deaths are the basis for El Día de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead, the Hispanic holiday usually celebrated between October 31 and November 2.

The Days of the Dead originated in Mexico possibly as long as 4,000 years ago. The Aztecs had elaborate ceremonies that lasted 20 days each year and included a feast day for dead children and one for dead adults. In an attempt to convert the Indians to Catholicism, the Spanish merged the native celebration into the Catholic traditions of All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

Halloween is another ancient tradition from Europe changed by Catholicism, but while the origins of Halloween and the Day of the Dead are similar, both are a time for the dead to rise and both symbolically feed the dead, they've evolved in the U.S. to become quite different things.

Beyond the commercial aspects, Halloween symbolizes the placation of evil and the unrestful dead, and El Dia de los Muertos memorializes and welcomes the souls of the dead to enjoy a brief time of earthly pleasures. The Day of the Dead are not a scary time, but are instead a celebration converting the sorrows of death into a festival of life.

Los Días de los Muertos also differs in most places in the Southwest from its traditional celebration in Mexico. In many places in Mexico, the celebration begins as early as October 18 and continues until November 9.

The biggest difference is that the traditional celebration calls for spending a day at the gravesites of loved ones and ancestors, but because so many people in the U.S. have left behind their family cemeteries, this part of the celebration is often not seen.

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