The city of Oaxaca is well-known for having one of the best Dia de Los Muertos festivals in Mexico, a holiday celebrated in many parts of Latin America. In Mexico the festival can be traced back thousands of years ago to indigenous cultures such as the Zapotec and Aztec. In Oaxaca the Day of the Dead Festival starts at the end of October when families prepare the tombs for the return of the spirits. During this time tombs and home altars are decorated with flowers and families leave offerings for the spirits in the cemeteries.
Día de los Muertos de Oaxaca 2018
About This Festival
It’s a Dead Man’s Party
Come the beginning of November, Mexican families throw a feast and invite the dead over for dinner. Though Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is often confused with Halloween due to the proximity in time, this holiday is not about ghouls and goblins, but instead honors the dead and welcomes their souls home as a blessing.
Altars and offerings are a way to remember family members who have passed into the afterlife. In this culture, the lines between life and death are blurred and the acceptance of mortality becomes a liberation from fear. Indeed, life and death live on parallel planes in Mexico. This beautiful festival has a profound life lesson that transcends life itself.
All Saints, Souls & Skulls
This celebration dates back 3000 years, long before Spanish influence in the region. Today’s festival is a mix of pre-Columbian customs and Christian teachings. Aztecs believed that life and death coexist, and during the fall the dead can visit the living. Death is merely a gateway to the underworld, an accession of consciousness and a rebirth into a higher state. Christianity fused this native ritual with All Saints Day (November 1st) and All Souls Day (November 2nd) to put its own religious spin on it. In the predominantly Catholic Mexico, graveyards and crosses are intertwined with powerful Aztec symbols such as skulls. Similar celebrations occur throughout the world, including Todos Los Santos in the Philippines and Día de Finados in Brazil.
Living Dias De Los Muertos In Oaxaca, Mexico
A little history
Dias de los Muertos are two or more days of celebrations honoring the dead. While celebrated in most Latin American countries, Dias de los Muertos is most strongly associated with Mexico, especially the cities of Patzcuaro and Oaxaca where the traditions originated and continue to be big events today.
The celebrations combine indigenous Aztec rituals with Catholicism, the predominant religion in Mexico introduced by the Spanish conquerors.
Early settlers were taught the dead would be insulted by the mourning or sadness of their remaining family members. Dia de los Muertos, therefore, celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and music the deceased enjoyed in life. The ceremonies recognize death as a natural part of the human experience – life begins at birth, continues through childhood, and culminates with becoming a contributing member of the local community. The dead are a part of these communities and awaken from their eternal sleep to share the celebrations of their loved ones on the Dia de los Muertos.
Prominent symbols of the celebration are the calacas (skeletons) and calaveras (skulls). These appear in décor, candies, parade masks and costumes, dolls, and as faces painted on the local people – both children and adults. These calacas and calaveras are usually depicted as enjoying life with fancy clothes while entertaining.
Reference:
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