Day of the Dead

Lagartijo (Dandy) by José Guadalupe Posada.

The Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos or Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated in Mexico and elsewhere associated with the Catholic celebrations of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, and is held on November 1 and 2. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pray for and to remember friends and family members who have died. It is commonly portrayed as a day of celebration rather than mourning. Mexican academics are divided on whether the festivity has indigenous pre-hispanic roots or whether it is a 20th-century rebranded version of a Spanish tradition developed by the presidency of Lazaro Cardenas to encourage Mexican nationalism through an "Aztec" identity. The festivity has become a national symbol and as such is taught in the nation's school system, typically asserting a native origin. In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

The holiday is more commonly called "Día de los Muertos" outside Mexico. Whereas in Spain and most of Latin America the public holiday and similar traditions are typically held on All Saints' Day (Todos los Santos), the Mexican government under Cardenas switched the festivity to All Souls' Day (Fieles Difuntos) in an effort to secularize the festivity and distinguish it from the Hispanic Catholic festival.

History

Mexico's counterpart to Halloween, the Day of the Dead, corresponds to the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on Nov. 1–2. In the English speaking world, these holidays were suppressed during the Reformation. As a result, traditions associated with them have transferred to Halloween.

The skeletons, skulls and the other morbid imagery of the Day of the Dead are based on the illustrations of Mexican cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada (1851 - 1913). His style was influenced by Spanish painter Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828). Unaware of this history, modern Mexicans generally see the holiday as an aspect of their Aztec heritage.

The celebration of the Day of the Dead has come to symbolize national unity. Even though the festival has always had materialistic elements such as the sugar paste afteniqué figures, traditionally given to children, cultural nationalists have upheld the Mexican Day of the Dead religious rituals as a contrast to the economic and materialist motives behind American Halloween traditions. These cultural nationalists insist that Halloween activities, which have entered across Mexico's northern border, profaning Day of the Dead celebration.