Halloween vs Dia de los Muertos

It’s Halloween. Sitting in my cubicle, working — or rather writing this post — you would never know it. There is no candy, no decorations and no costumes. It is business as usual. I guess you can say that it is any “anti-Halloween celebrating” persons dream.

Bethie and I have both talked about this day and we both sort of agree on why celebrating it traditionally is sort of “evil” in a way, even although I am usually inclined to give in to the cultural aspect of the celebrations, Bethie on the other hand is determined to not. We are however not completely opposed to celebrating “Dia de los Muertos”, and why? well perhaps because it sounds more culturally meaningful than Halloween, or because we both know little about it. So I decided to do a little bit of research and compare the two holidays. I doubt that my findings will do anything in terms of persuading us to view either one of these holidays any different than we do now.

Halloween:

• Celebrated on the night of October 31
• The name is shortened from All-hallow-even, or the evening before “All Hallows’ Day”
• It is said to have originated in Ireland
• The Celts celebrated Halloween as Samhain (pronounced /’s?aun?/), “End of Summer”, a pastoral and agricultural fire festival or feast, during this season the normal order of the universe is suspended. The barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily removed resulting in the portal through which we pass on during death lying open. Thus, the spirits of the dead move freely among the living.
• Hoping to do away with pagan traditions of the Irish people Pope Gregory IV standardized the date of All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day, on November 1 to the entire Western Church in 835.
• Because Samhain had traditionally fallen the night before All Hallows’, it eventually became known as All Hallows’ Even’ or Hallowe’en.
• Celebrated mostly by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets, fruit, and other treats.

Dia de los Muertos:

• Celebrated on November 1 and November 2
• Celebrations are traced to the Aztec month of Miccailhuitontli, presided by the goddess Mictecacihuatl (”Lady of the Dead”), and dedicated to children and the dead. The rituals during this month also featured a festivity dedicated to the major Aztec war deity, Huitzilopochtli (”Sinister Hummingbird”)….
• Indigenous people celebrated the lives of the deceased, and the continuation of life; the belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life.
• The ancient festival was originally celebrated in late July/early August. The feast was moved to All Hallows’ Eve by Spanish priests hoping to do away with the pagan traditions of the indigenous people.
• Families usually clean and visit the cemeteries where their loved ones are buried and decorate their graves with offerings of orange marigold and foods. Toys are brought for dead children, and bottles of tequila, mezcal, pulque or atole for adults. Offerings are also put in homes, with foods such as candied pumpkin, pan de muerto or sugar skulls and beverages such as atole. The ofrendas are left out in the homes as a welcoming gesture for the deceased.

As you can see both of these holidays are very much rooted in paganism if you want to be technical, but if you want to be really technical so is our beloved Christmas holiday, the celebration of birthdays, Valentines Day, The Easter Rabbit etc…

So what’s the point in celebrating any holiday at all?