The Origins of Día de Muertos
If you think Mexico does not have its national folklore myths, like American Thanksgiving, think again.
What if you were told that Día de Muertos originates in Medieval Europe rather than pre-Hispanic Mexico?
That’s right. According to Mexico's INAH (National Institute of Anthropology & History) researcher and professor Elsa Malvido, the prehispanic elements we associate today with Día de Muertos were added in the 1930s during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, who is often likened to Mexico’s FDR.
The 1930s were a time of global turmoil. Spain experienced a devastating civil war, which resulted in the rise of the Franco Dictatorship, while Mexico’s president Cárdenas helped the losing Spanish Republican side with aid and munitions.
In contrast, Mexico had just fought its second revolution (1910-20) and the social revolutionaries won over a dictatorship, the Porfiriato. Let’s just say promoting Spanish heritage in Mexico was not at its high point.
These political conditions propelled the idea of glossing over the fundamental Spanish Catholic origins of the Day of the Dead and attributing a native Mexican heritage to the holiday. Ofrendas or the altars were originally a Jesuit tradition when the holy relics of saints were taken from safekeeping in churches and placed on display. These remains of the saints were thought to be intermediaries with the spiritual world and this is why we see them mimicked on the famous pan de muerto with its skeleton shapes.
As a result of archaeological and documentary research, social scientists know that Aztecs frequently bound their dead in shrouds and cremated the deceased. In contrast, cemeteries as a place to bury the dead and to commune with those passed on for All Soul’s Day is a phenomenon we see after terrible epidemics that swept Mexico in the early nineteenth century. Before that, during the Spanish colonial period, the dead were buried within the confines and around the church. This practice had to be stopped because of those infectious diseases that spread around the time of the young Mexican republic.
We can say that today the tradition has evolved, just like anything else. Its beauty lies in the one-of-a-kind syncretism between the first peoples of Mexico and the Spanish. This Mestizaje is exactly what led to Día de Muertos.
Regardless of origins, taking at least a couple of days a year to remember loved ones who have passed on, ancestor acknowledgment, is at the beautiful heart of this tradition.
How will you remember?