Awkward Author's Annotated Guide to Life: A Day Unlike Any Other: Dia de los Muertos, Halloween, Samhain

A Day Unlike Any Other:
Dia de los Muertos, Halloween, Samhain

I love Halloween. It is, by far, my favorite holiday. Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is nice (especially if you have family), and all that winter wonderland stuff is just effing lovely. Yet, nothing speaks to my moribund sense of beauty and fun like the holy trinity of autumnal pleasure: Samhain, Halloween, and Dia de los Muertos.

Samhain is what some pagans celebrate as a “Gaelic festival marking the end of the

harvest season and the beginning of winter or the ‘darker half’ of the year. It is celebrated from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, which is nearly halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice,” according to Wikipedia. Samhain appears, or is referenced, in some of the earliest Irish literature and is known to have pre-Christian roots. In essence, Samhain is older than Christianity, and was one of the four main festivals of the Gaelic calendar, marking the last harvest and beginning of winter. Traditionally, Samhain was a time to take stock of the herds and food supplies. It was a time when the doorways to the Otherworld opened, allowing the spirits and the dead to come into our world; but while Beltane was a summer festival for the living, Samhain "was essentially a festival for the dead.” The Oweynagat ('cave of the cats'), is one of the many 'gateways to the Otherword' from whence beings and spirits were said to have emerged on Samhain. When I studied pagan spirituality (Wicca, or what some narrow-minded persons might refer to as witchcraft) Samhain became what I called Halloween. This is not quite accurate, however, because Samhain and Halloween are each their own celebrations that occur (unfortunately) on the same day. For years, I misunderstood, and quite easily confused the two.

Halloween, also known as All Hallows' Eve, is “a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It initiates the triduum of Hallowmas, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers” (Wikipedia). According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a result of the Christianization of what was originally a pagan celebration of the harvest and ensuing winter. Wikipedia states that it was “a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic Samhain” (Wikipedia). Influenced, my butt. It was a pagan celebration made acceptable by its acclimatization to Christianity.

This sly ‘rebranding’ managed to keep a pagan holiday acceptable because it also became a Christian holiday. Jack Santino, an academic folklorist, writes that concepts of "the sacred and the religious are a fundamental context for understanding Halloween … but there [is] an uneasy truce which exists between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that [existed] before Christianity arrived" (95). Historian Nicholas Rogers, who writes on the origins of Halloween in his article “Samhain and the Celtic Origins of Halloween”, notes that while "some folklorists have detected the origins [of Halloween] in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain", which comes from the Old Irish for ‘summer's end’” (Rogers 11–21).

Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is also a blending of folklore, culture, and religion, and occurs primarily in Mexico, or in the Spanish-speaking parts of the Americas. According to Wikipedia, “the holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.” It has such importance that it is a bank holiday in Mexico. The celebration takes place on October 31, November 1 and November 2, in connection with the “Christian triduum of Hallowmas: All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day” (Wikipedia). The Day of the Dead, like Samhain, is when you can contact your dearly departed loved ones who reside ‘on the other side.’

It’s not surprising to find out that Dia de los Muertos is also an acclimatization. Its pagan-ness supersedes the invading Spanish upon the ‘new world.’ The Day of the Dead blends Catholicism and folkloric, indigenous pagan traditions, and scholars say that they can trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances hundreds of years ago, and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl. Wikipedia adds that “The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to a pre-Columbian past. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors had been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2,500–3,000 years.” Where I lived in San Antonio, Texas there is a lot of art associated with Dia de los Muertos; in particular, the use of the beautifully eerie Sugar Skulls.

Why skulls?

Well, in the pre-Hispanic era skulls were “commonly kept as trophies and displayed during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth” (Wikipedia). Other items are associated with Dia de los Muertos like marigolds and dancing skeletons and, of course, chocolate.

Basically, we have three different celebrations that occur on the same day/days in different parts of the world; however each is unique in its own way. All three the same, but different, eh? Isn’t that kind of like the concept of the Holy Trinity? All three different and distinct, but all three of the same root? That’s not confusing at all. While all three traditions have to do with the changing harvest season, and the souls of the dead, each has its own interpretation and practices.

So, let me tell you about the time that I played the Devil in a Dia de los Muertos celebration at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. It was 2003 or 2004, and I had a red dress. I wore a devil’s mask and tempted the (now disgraced – unrepentant and resigned) president of OLLU with chocolate, but she demurred. I told her it would be in her best interest to take the chocolate I offered, but she politely declined citing some diet or other ‘coconut’ hogwash.

We processed as a group, and chanted around the grotto and cemetery area behind the University and next to the Convent, ending up back in front of the statue of Our Lady fenced behind the grotto bars. Before the ceremony, I set a picture of both my dad and stepfather, who died within 4 months of each other, on the communal altar along with a necktie of Dean’s and a hat that belonged to my father, Herb. I added a Mexican coke for my father, and a container of Gatorade for Dean, my stepfather. In the Day of the Dead tradition, you set some of the dearly departed loved one’s favorite items (drinks, foods, cigarettes, etc.) on the altar as gifts for them in the afterlife, so that they may enjoy some of the things they enjoyed in the physical world in that short span when they can visit from beyond the grave. Sweets, like candies in the shape of skulls, are also offered.