Well Becoming

a blog about being well, becoming well, staying well - and flourishing. Written by a professor and family doctor living between Liverpool, UK and Granada, Spain

Day of the Dead
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 @ 2:53 PM

Forget Halloween, it’s just a commercial nonsense. What’s much more interesting is the day after, 1 November. We call it All Saints Day. In Mexico it’s known as the Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

If you think that sounds grim, macabre or spooky, you couldn’t be more wrong. The Day of the Dead is a massive communal celebration. Thousands of families visit their local cemeteries and have parties at the gravesides of their dead relatives and ancestors. They build little altars at home, and decorate them with photographs and loved ones’ favourite foods. It’s an event that goes back many hundreds of years, at least to the Aztec era.

The biggest and best Mexican celebrations are in Oaxaca. A couple of years ago Sue, Mike and I were there for the festivities. We had a ball! The city cathedral was surrounded by hundreds of huge sand sculptures. The main cemetery was transformed into a place of light, with music and dancing, eating and drinking - bubbling with energy and excitement. It was full of joy.

The nearest we get to this in our buttoned-up western culture is the Irish wake, when family and friends come together to celebrate the life of whoever has just died, often with their body present in the room. There’s plenty to eat and drink, and laughter, with some good stories told. But it’s different, it’s about just one person, and it only happens the one time.

Wouldn’t it be great to remember and celebrate our dead on a regular basis, and do it together? It would reaffirm our sense of who we are and where we belong, and remind us that we’re part of a big supportive community.

Of course we might want to pick and choose a bit about who we’re remembering - there may be some people we are glad to have got away from.

And since many of us move around a lot, we might have to work out the best place to do our celebrating.

For me it would probably be the churchyard in Corbridge, Northumberland, where my father’s buried, near where he and his parents lived for many years. We’d need some big braziers to provide us with heat and light, as it can get pretty cold up there. As well as the food and wine and singing (‘Blaydon Races’ would have to figure), we’d take a football and play a bit of 3-and-in.

Where would you hold your Day of the Dead?

And what would you do to celebrate?

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6 Comments

Patricia (Campana) said:
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 @ 2:51 PM

So glad to see you here again, Christopher. Really enjoyed that article. For many death is the last taboo. Don't think or talk about it and maybe it will go away....
Then again, I suppose we get on with life precisely because we repress the awareness that one day we will not be around.

All Souls' Day (2nd November)

Known as the Día de los Difuntos in Spain. The Spanish do visit the cemetery en masse to remember the departed, and there used to be the custom (maybe there still is) of spending the night in the cemetery, with lights, food and drink.
Various traditions are observed throughout Spain, and special delicacies prepared for the occasion (for example, the "huesos de santo").

In Ireland, particularly in country areas, there is still the custom of holding a wake for the deceased in his or her own home.

"Historically, the Celtic nations have always had a great respect for their ancestors and they believed that at certain times of year, the boundaries between mortals and the souls of the dead cease to exist. This is especially true of the “Three Nights of the End of Summer” - Hallowe’en, Samhain and All Soul’s Day. The ancients also believed that the dead were the repositories of wisdom and lore and that one of the reasons they return is to speak to their descendants.

( Taken from an article by Bridget Hegarty. )

I too would love a celebration in the churchyard where my father is buried in Ireland. He certainly would be present in spirit I think, as he loved any kind of celebration and get-together. We'd have some hot whiskey, a drink he always liked on a cold winter's night, and lots of good conversation. He was an excellent conversationalist.
Whenever our family meet with relatives, some near, some distant, my father, and my mother, are remembered, with laughter, joy and a tear or two....

Pity Hallowe'en has become commercialised in recent decades. All Hallows´Eve, or Víspera de Todos los Santos.
The old pagan feast of Samhain.

Best wishes
Patricia

Chris Dowrick said:
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 7:42 AM

Thank you Patricia, what a wonderfully rich comment!

Tamara said:
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 9:15 AM

Thanks Chris (and also Patricia!) for some lovely thought-provoking writing.

Patricia (Campana) said:
Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 9:20 PM

Hallowe'en (the eve of All Saints) in Ireland was a night for telling ghost stories around the fire, and these traditions still hold in many places. The spirits of the departed at a crossroads, the headless coachman, the black dog...
We share these traditions with Galicia, in northern Spain, and Asturias and a few other northern provinces. Best to avoid the "Santa Compaña" (Peregrinación de los Muertos), as they mournfully glide in procession, in two lines, along a dark, lonely road, barefoot, shrouded, carrying invisible candles, and led by a living person carrying a light, holy water and a cross......

The Santa Compaña does not restrict its mournful expeditions just to Hallowe'en.

Coleman said:
Sunday, November 4, 2012 @ 4:36 PM

In many parts of rural Ireland, it is traditional to visit graves and to honor the dead on a specific day each year, known as a Pattern Day. The date varies from parish to parish. In preparation, graves are cleaned and decorated with new flowers and shrubs. Often, family members who have left the area will return , meet friends and neighbors at the cemetery and remember the dead.

Patricia (Campana) said:
Monday, November 5, 2012 @ 12:52 AM

Cemetery Sunday is a tradition that goes on the length and breadth of Ireland. Often held in August throughout Ireland.

The Pattern is a festival (music, dance, eating and drinking) with origins in pre-Christian times. And occasion too, in the past (and no doubt in the present) for young men and women to meet and get to know one another). Sometimes patterns were held at Holy Wells,

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Christopher Dowrick
I'm a professor and family doctor, living between Liverpool UK and Granada Spain. Mental health and well-being are at the heart of my work