The end of October marks the time when many countries have traditions of celebrating Halloween. Here in Mexico it is a 3 day holiday called Día de los Muertes/Day of the Dead. History has it that Halloween is a time to celebrate the harvest season but also it is where the boundaries of the living and dead worlds overlap. Often the dead will send spirits back to cause havoc. In doing this, many people would dress in costume to mimic or appease them. Over the years, Halloween has evolved to now being more about people dressing in costume, especially kids, who then go trick or treating. However, as much as it is cute to see kids all dressed up, there is still something very real and serious about provoking spirits.
Here in Mexico, the Day of the Dead is not about kids trick or treating. I will briefly describe it but if you are a real history buff, you can google and get the in depth version.
For the Mexicans, what the day represents, is taken very seriously. The people continue to follow this pagan ritual and build shrines to commemorate the day. The people then visit these shrines to pray for the dead to come back so they can communicate with them. Often the shrines will be built out of the cempasuchitl flower, also known as the flower of the twenty petals or the flower of the dead. The shrines will be decorated with pictures, clothing, music, and other favorite items of the loved one. Many of the altars will always include favorite foods of the loved one so the dead can enjoy the aroma, tissue paper that represents wind, water in a container to quench the thirst of the spirit from it's long journey and a candle that will be lit for each soul.
Many people will dress as skeletons to embrace the celebration and show that it is not a time of mourning but a time of unity. I have some pictures to give you an idea of how serious the people are about this tradition and how misled they are about the spirit world. We as Christians know that the one and only spirit that we need is the Holy Spirit of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the truth, the life and the way!!
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