Dia de los Muertos Holiday

Perhaps you've heard of it--Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.  It's a holiday in Mexico (celebrated in many other Latin American countries and perhaps elsewhere as well) that has pre-Hispanic origins combined with Catholic observances of All Saints and All Souls days.  The celebrations vary somewhat from place to place and we have read that Oaxaca has particularly interesting ones. We have been to Oaxaca (city), the capital of Oaxaca (state), before for the Christmas holiday season, so we decided to take a trip there for this holiday.

A view of part of the historical section of Oaxaca city

In case you don't know much about Mexico's geography, Oaxaca is one of the southernmost states in Mexico, with beaches on the Pacific coast, jungle, and drier highlands (e.g., mountains).  Oaxaca city is in the highlands.  It's a colonial city, with a central core of buildings dating from the 1600s, including at least four large churches built during that time.  We traveled there by bus--nothing like in the US--a six-hour trip.  The country between Mexico City and Oaxaca, after about the first hour and a half, really reminds me of the southwest US.  It's mountainous and fairly dry.

In Oaxaca, the Dia de los Muertos celebration gets started on October 31.  Many (mostly young) people were in costume--Count Dracula-type vampires were popular with some of the youngest.  Older kids were dressed in various representations of death, such as black monk's hood with a scythe, skeleton, and the special Mexican version which is called La Catrina.  There were parades that involved a band and groups of kids in costume dancing.  On the 31st, the parade we saw included 10-15 kids in costumes on stilts.  Many of the girls were dressed as La Catrina.  At the front of the parade was a 10-foot long paper dragon (no idea of significance to Dia de los Muertos).

The next night, there was another parade with many costumes of monsters of various types (Orcs, etc.). On the 31st, we watched the parade for a little while but then left it to go to one of the cemetaries. I know this sounds creepy, but there were several activities being held at the cemetary. 

The street that ran along one side of the cemetary was essentially closed to traffic by the vendors' booths that were set up along both sides of it.  There was food of various types already cooked or being cooked.  One of the special dishes in Oaxaca is called a tlyuda--it's sort of a large, thin, flour tortilla, crisped on a big griddle and spread with a thin layer of refried beans, lettuce, tomato, various types of meat, and this wonderful white cheese.  There were also booths selling almost every other kind of thing--CDs, sunglasses, pizza.

The cemetary is surrounded by 30-foot high walls and the main entrance was open.  The part we were entering was the mausoleum that had slots for burials in the walls, around the inside of a rectangle.  Each of these slots--and they ran from floor to ceiling--had a lit candle at the front of it.  Across the wide corridor from the burial slots was an area that had lots more graves, family crypts, and elaborate markers.  The graves are typically covered with stone or concrete and a number of them have little buildings, statues, or other structural design elements.


Dia de los Muertos observations have several parts.  People set up altars with offerings for the dead family members who return to be honored.  These are frequently in homes, but also are in places of business. 

Altar in an Artisans' building

The altars may have photos or other representations of the dead, along with various things that the dead favored while living.  So for some, that would be foods they liked (chocolate, mole, fruit, etc.), bebidas or drinks (such as beer, mezcal, coffee, etc.) or representations of favorite activities.  For the latter, there might be a skeleton dancing, playing an instrument, smoking, etc. 

The altars are also decorated with lots of flowers.  There is usually a glass of water among the offerings (hey--the dead get thirsty in returning).  In addition to the altars, graves are cleaned up and decorated, sort of like what is done in the US for Memorial Day.  People spend a good bit of time in the cemetary cleaning and decorating.





We've been told that flower petals are strewn from the grave to the altar so that the dead can find the way home, but in practice we saw flower petals strewn only for a short distance outside the door of a house into where the altar was located.





When we first visited the cemetary and mausoleum, several altars were set up for a competition.  As I indicated above, there also were lots of candles and most of the available light was from the candles.  In one part of the mausoleum, a choir performed music that sounded like Gregorian chants.  At this point only a few graves had any flowers (except for one that was covered with funeral wreaths, probably because it had not been there very long).  In one section of the mausoleum, volunteers were serving hot chocolate and pan de yema, a type of slightly sweet bread.  Both of these foods are traditional to Dia de los Muertos, as is pan de muerte.  The atmosphere was somewhat festive.

We returned to the cemetary during the day on Nov. 2, All Souls Day. This is the day when the major cleaning and decorating is done.  Outside even more vendors had set up booths and there were also carnival rides.  Flower vendors had several large stalls with many, many beautiful flowers.The walkways inside the cemetary were packed with people.  Friends and family members greeted each other and stopped their work to talk.  Teens sat around looking bored.  There were a few people playing music and others selling snacks of various types. We felt intrusive and uncomfortable as spectators, where we had not during the previous visit, and left as quickly as we could, given the large crowd.


I'm not sure what we expected and I don't know whether we were perceived as being intrusive.  I think I'm more comfortable when I'm able to be a participant-observer rather than an observer/voyeur.  Not knowing anyone there for this event that seems both public and private, how could I be other than observer/voyeur? I think we walk this line frequently in international work, although it's most apparent to me when I am really being just another tourist.

The all-Catrina fashion show