Dia de los Muertos

Although forced to convert to Catholicism, many indigenous communities have been able to maintain a number of traditional religious rituals, Dia de los Muertos probably being the most significant. Although Dia de los Muertos happens to coincide with the Catholic All Saints Day and All Souls Day, the activities that take place are definitely not Catholic traditions.

 The basic idea behind Day of the Dead is that the spirits of the deceased are returning to hang out with the family and party. To prepare, the family will decorate the grave with strong smelling pine needles and bright flowers to help the spirits find their way. The family might also clean their homes and sweep a path between the cemetery and their house. They’ll place the favorite food and drink of the deceased at the grave site (the family may later eat the food but it will have lost its taste and nutrition since the spirit of their loved one will have only consumed the spirit of the food).

We visited three cemeteries to observe Dia de los Muertos activities, each one more amazing than the previous. At Romerillo, the cemetery was on a hill cleared of trees with twelve crosses about 30 feet high in the middle, each representing a different community whose dead were buried there. The graves were simple mounds of dirt with a single wooden cross or sometimes multiple crosses to symbolize the number of years since the person passed. A “monkey band” dressed in colorful hats, robes, and dark sunglasses sang and danced to bring good vibes to the festivities. Sometimes they would sing a special song at the grave of a particularly important person. Day of the Dead coincided with the weekly market day, so there were food vendors, games for the kids, and one annoying man with a stage and microphone selling once in a lifetime deals on blankets.

Next we went to San Juan Chamula. It was not market day here so the mood at the cemetery was a bit more tranquil – only a few vendors walking around with cotton candy. Many of the graves were bordered by small wooden fences and had concrete headstones. A number of mariachi bands wandered through the cemetery, playing songs for the deceased as requested. Families sat by the graves eating, drinking, and listening to music. A popular commodity at the cemeteries is pox, homebrew sugar cane alcohol. Men had 5-gallon jugs of pox and would fill up old water bottles for sale.

The last cemetery we visited was in Zinacantan, a village known for its greenhouses and the variety of flowers they produce. Their cemetery was up a windy road at the top of a mountain overlooking the town. Given the community’s dedication to flowers, we were expecting the cemetery to be beautiful and it exceeded our expectations. The grave sites themselves were more elaborate, covered with concrete caps or small buildings containing a shrine. Flowers were everywhere. Even the hand-woven shirts the men wore had floral designs. Photography was strictly prohibited at some cemeteries and strongly discouraged at others. However, the people at Zinacantan didn’t seem to mind and the sight was too beautiful to resist.

  

Some friends went to Todos Santos, Guatemala, to observe the famous Dia de los Muertos festivities there. Apparently, after drinking themselves into a stupor, the highlight is a drunken horse race where the contestants hop on their horses, sprint to one end of the race track, chug a beer, then sprint to the other end. It’s not uncommon for a rider to fall off their horse and split their head open. As legend has it, if someone dies during the festivities next year will be a good year. Unfortunately, no one died this year.