Día de los Muertos
As a long time Halloween aficionado who was exposed to Mexican culture while growing up in LA, Lauren’s fascination with Día de los Muertos comes naturally. To celebrate a recent milestone birthday I took her to Oaxaca to experience the real deal.
What we encountered last week was a very different perspective on death and how it’s observed in Mexico. At the time of writing the word “celebration” and its variants appears 55 times in the linked Wikipedia article, and the word “mourn” doesn’t appear at all. I won’t pretend to understand the complexities of a culture that isn’t mine, but from what we saw, that feels about right.
This early November event is a celebration. It’s beautiful, vibrant, surprising, and thoroughly enjoyable even for a couple of largely ignorant turistas. The city was positively taken over by the event with locals and visitors alike fully participating.
Some vignettes that can only start to convey the experience:
- Ofrendas. These vibrant alters to the dead are ubiquitous, from the airport on arrival to street corners and businesses to glimpses as we passed by random doorways and windows of private homes.
- Marigolds. Marigolds are everywhere. We didn’t see the convoys driving in flowers from surrounding farms leading up to the celebration, but from the millions on millions of them everywhere you looked around the city I can well imagine what a sight that alone might have been.
- Overhead displays. There are no end of papel picados of course, along with skeletons and skulls, marigolds, and other objects strung between buildings on many streets.
- Painted faces. Calavara-motif black and white face painting and marigold headpieces are readily on offer from street vendors and businesses, and locals and tourists alike readily take advantage. It’s just as common to see a painted face seated at the table next to you in a restaurant as it is to pass one on the street.
- Cemetary parties. Walking through the Pantéon General after dark on the night of the 1st is a memory we won’t ever forget. From quieter family and friend gatherings around grave sites to bands keeping things lively to hand-held fireworks showering celebrators in sparks, the candle and alcohol-fuelled vibes were electric.
- Cemetary fair. And unexpectedly to us, immediately off the entrance of the cemetary is a street fair with all the usual trappings like games of chance, food vendors, and amusement park rides.
- Brass bands and fireworks. Need to find a party? Just listen for the band and fireworks and go that way.
- The food & drink. Aside from pan de muertos, the general culinary experience is less event-specific and more about enjoying what Oaxaca has to offer. From familiar moles and mezcal to the less familiar chapulines and tejate, we thoroughly enjoyed eating and drinking our way across the city. Restaurants, street food, random vendors walking a cart down a street — it was all amazing.
- Halloween crossover. Skeleton and skull motifs are a strong part of the local cultural identity, but we couldn’t help but notice a few elements of English-styled Halloween creep in at times. Candy tosses and kids with pumpkins trick or treating, jack o’ lanterns, and pumpkin spice were noticeable if not abundant.
Lauren summarized it better than I could: this trip was like visiting the North Pole at Christmas.