 "Photo: Photos by Lahna Dixon")
 "Photo: Photo by Lahna Dixon")
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The Day of the Dead began more than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death. It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate known today as Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
Although the ritual has since been merged with Catholic theology, it still maintains the basic principles of the Aztec ritual. Sugar skulls and sweet bread are made with the names of the dead person on the forehead and are eaten by a relative or friend.
The Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations kept skulls as trophies and displayed them during the ritual. The skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth. The skulls were used to honor the dead, who the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the month long ritual.
The Spaniards had a more fearful view of the afterlife than the natives who viewed it as the continuation of life, and embraced it. To the natives, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake. However, the Spaniards considered the ritual to be sacrilegious. They perceived the indigenous people to be barbaric and pagan.
The Spaniards try to put an end to the ritual during the attempt to convert them into Catholicism. But like the old Aztec spirits, the ritual refused to die. To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it coincided with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when it is celebrated today.
Festivities were presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl, during the month of August. The goddess, known as "Lady of the Dead," was believed to have died at birth. Today, Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and in certain parts of the United States and Central America. In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones and listen to their favorite songs.
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