Halloween and Day of the Dead
Imagine the cold night air as it whips across your cheeks. Your costume itches, but you don’t notice because you’ve got a bag full of candy and you’re ready for more. You see pictures of ghosts, goblins, and witches everywhere you look and they frighten you a little. You’re celebrating Halloween. But if you’re surrounded by candy skulls and toys, celebrating in graveyards, attending mass three times a day, and you’re praying for the safe passage of the souls of your friends and family, you’re celebrating Day of the Dead. Even though the origins for Day of the Dead and Halloween are similar, the American and Hispanic approaches to death have developed this holiday in very different ways.
It is important to recognize that the origins of Halloween and Day of the Dead are the same in order to recognize how each culture’s approaches to death have influenced the differences. Both holidays started with the Celtic people and a holiday called Samhain. November 1st was the Celtic New Year and the celebration of Samhaim started on the evening of October 31st. This holiday focused on harvesting, feasting, and, of course, supernatural elements (Santino 147-9). This was an important time for the Celts because the celebration occurred in the transition from summer to winter. On this day, normal time was suspended and it was believed the creatures of the underworld and the souls of those who had died that year were able to enter the land of the living (Rupert). As a result of this belief, the living sacrificed fruits and vegetables to honor the dead and atone for their sins and lit bonfires to protect themselves and light the way for the spirits. This festival began on sundown on October 31st (Santino 149). That evening was the busiest, supernaturally speaking, and that is why Halloween is celebrated then. The idea of offering food in order to appease the spirits, as demonstrated during Day of the Dead, is an old one. The story behind Samhain is that a character named Nera is sent begging from door to door and then enters the fairy world through a cave. Another story tells of how the race of supernatural beings called Formorians demanded tribute, like harvested fruits, from the living (Santino 149-150). This is representative of the strong fantasy world that is present, especially on Samhain, and it also shows the origin of the tributes of food given during the Day of the Dead and it is similar to "trick or treating," which is practiced during Halloween. From Samhain, both Halloween and Day of the Dead developed, but not before the intervention of the Catholic Church.
The religious side to Samhain was created because the Church disapproved of the supernatural aspects of Samhain, claiming they came from the Satan. In an attempt to replace Samhain, the Church instituted All Saints Day on November 1st. This day was created in order to honor all saints who did not have a special day assigned to them. Even with this new holiday, though, the idea of dead roaming the earth did not die. In the ninth century, the Church tried to appease the need to interact with spirits by instituting All Souls Day, where the living pray for the souls of the dead. Day of the Dead is a mixture of All Saints and All Souls Day that was brought into Mexico by the Spanish. The religious ideas mixed with the beliefs of the Indians already inhabiting the area (Santino 153-156). Halloween was brought to America in the 1840’s when many Irish settlers traveled to America to escape from the potato famine in Ireland (Bethancourt). The religious ties are more prevalent in Day of the Dead than in Halloween since Spaniards with strong Catholic backgrounds were the ones who settled present day Mexico.
The Day of the Dead is a holiday that focuses on the religious and spiritual consequences of death, which sets it apart from Halloween. There is an emphasis on remembering dead relatives and friends, giving them offerings, and praying for their safe passage to heaven. The night before All Saints Day, families stay up all night making food for altars and guests. The altars are put out at this time in the home for the spirits of the dead. On each altar is the dead person’s favorite food and drink, toys and candy for children, and alcohol and tobacco for adults. Candles adorn the altars as well. At 4 am on November 1st, the children’s spirits arrive and leave 4 hours later, after consuming the spirit of the offerings on the altar. This is repeated later that day with the adult spirits. On the second day, prayers are said for the dead and priests travel to cemeteries, blessing the graves and praying. There are three masses that day, indicative of the strong religious beliefs. The evening of the second day, graves are decorated and there are picnics in the cemeteries (which would be unheard of in the United States). This day is much more social and the food that was on the altars is given to friends. Also, the image of a skull is present in both toys and candy that are given as gifts to living friends and family (Green 56-62). This holiday is much different from Halloween, where the personal effects of death are ignored. Day of the Dead deals with accepting the deaths of family members and helping them get to the other side, a more religious focus than what Halloween has.
Day of the Dead is a mixture of Catholic and Indian beliefs, and this mixture is what makes it unique. When the Spaniards settled present-day Mexico, they encountered the Aztec Indians, a strong and prominent empire. The Spanish settlers tried to impose their strong Catholic beliefs on the Indians. However, the Aztec beliefs were also strong and they managed to keep some of their traditions, which set the foundation for Day of the Dead. One of these traditions was the idea of sustaining the dead through food offerings. This is one of the main acts in Day of the Dead, so even though the Church did not approve of it, it has survived. Death themes in toys and candy as a way to increase childhood participation is also an Aztec belief, still popular in Mexico today (Green 63-9). Also, the natives of Mexico were already familiar of death and saw it as part of the cycle of life. They believed that nothing had a definitive end, just as plants died and grew back the next spring (Kelly 93-4). This belief lessened their individual fears of death. This coincidentally was also a Celtic belief, further illustrating how Day of the Dead has some core Celtic ideas (Schneider). Also, the Aztecs had already created their own rituals for the dead whom they thought were going to heaven. The Spaniards moved this celebration to match All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The basis of Day of the Dead comes from the Aztecs, and was altered to incorporate the beliefs of the Catholic Spaniards. Having one mass on All Saints Day and three on All Souls Day is a Catholic custom, which is still practiced today. Even the primary colors of Day of the Dead come from the church (black and purple). The Spaniards also brought the idea of giving bread to the dead and the Aztecs used this idea to make amaranth bread in the shapes of clouds and human figures. Presently, bread is very important in the Day of the Dead festival and it is still shaped into different figures. The abundance of candles in the Day of the Dead celebration comes from the Spaniards, who gave them to the Indians. However, the candles weren't used in church, and were used by the Indians during all night vigils for their dead family members, instead (Green 65-71). This is a key example of how Day of the Dead combines both Catholic and Indian beliefs. Since both the Indians and Catholics had strong beliefs in the afterlife, Day of the Dead is a heavily religious and spiritual holiday.
Day of the Dead is still celebrated in Mexico because the Hispanic culture is still aware and comfortable with facing death. As Patricia Kelly puts it in her essay "Death in Mexican Folk Culture": "death is a permanent concern, a daily presence, especially in a country like Mexico in which problems ranging from the difficulty of providing medical services to the persistence of ignorance and oppression accentuate its meaning" (107). The Hispanic people are more comfortable with death because they accept it more than people of the United States do. Octavio Paz said in The Labyrinth of Solitude, "The word death is not pronounced in New York, in Paris, in London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it: it is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love" (Shibles 413-4). The physical remains of death do not scare the Mexican people. In many parts of Mexico, the water used to wash a dead body is later used to make a meal and when the meal is eaten, the sins of the dead person are released (Kelly 107-8). This sort of extreme acceptance of death is what shapes Day of the Dead into an open and spiritual holiday. Death is not a taboo subject since the Mexican people are past their own insecurities of death and can focus on honoring and atoning the sins of their dead relatives and friends. Even in the year 2000, Mexico still has a high infant mortality rate of .02619% (2000 est.) and a high rate of people under the poverty line of 27% (1998 est.). As a reference, the United States' the infant mortality rate was .00682% (2000 est.) and the rate of people below the poverty line was 12.7% (1999est.). These statistics show that death is still prevalent in the Hispanic culture and Day of the Dead will continue to be celebrated with the same openness and comfort as it has since the beginning of it's creation.
While Day of the Dead focuses on the religious and spiritual side to Samhain, Halloween has strong supernatural and chaotic ideas. Halloween consists of the evening of October 31st. On that night, the children participate in a ritual called trick or treating where they dress up in costumes and walk from door to door, asking for candy. Houses are decorated with jack-o'-lanterns (hallowed out pumpkins with faces carved into them with a candle in the center), scary objects or pictures depicting monsters, and other types of various scary decorations (Santino 147). For the older children, this is a time to cause mischief in the form of pranks, like draping toilet paper on trees and rooftops or throwing eggs (Santino 135). This sort of mischief has chaotic elements to it, stemming from Samhain. For adults, this is a time for letting their hair down, so to speak, and when one participates in normally taboo activities such as semi-nudity, open homosexuality, and open drinking and drug-taking (Santino 11). In my own experience, Halloween has been a time to watch scary movies and use Ouija boards to predict the future. Halloween carries with it a strong supernatural sense that has been commercialized. USA TODAY reported that Halloween is the second biggest holiday in terms of money spent. Americans will spend $1.25 billion dollars on costumes, including costumes for pets. Also, 86% percent of Americans will decorate their homes with items of a Halloween theme ("Some Churches"). This commercialization is what replaces the religious and spiritual tones of Samhain, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day.
Halloween didn't catch on in America until the 19th century and, because of this, it doesn't have traditions as rich as those of Day of the Dead. In the 1840's Irish settlers came to America to escape the potato famine and with them came the holiday we know as Halloween (Santino 153). Most of the traditions that are associated with Halloween today weren't widely practiced and, instead, it was a time for mischief. At the turn of the century, destructive vandalism during Halloween was rampant. In Jill Meyer's book Halloween in America, she describes how petty pranks and vandalism (like putting soap on windows and tipping outhouses) turned nasty around 1920. At this time, there was real destruction to property and cruelty to both animals and people. So, in an attempt to stop this violence, trick or treating was instated. Kids were persuaded to go from door to door and receive treats, which is still practiced today (Bethancourt). Originally, children dressed as the walking dead (ghosts, skeletons, witches, etc.) which was inspired by Samhain where the door to the underworld was open (Santino 150). So, while trick or treating is similar to some practices in Ireland and England, it doesn't come from those places directly. Costumes of the walking dead have evolved and now range from scary to funny to sexy. The original symbolism of the costumes has deteriorated into a reflection of pop culture, a sure sign of commercialization. The beginning of the Halloween business started in the 1880's when Halloween parties became popular. Dennison Paper Company caught on to this trend and was the first to make paper decorations (Schneider). From there, Halloween became more and more commercial and less about the spiritual, religious, and personal effects of death.
Halloween veered from its origin's intent because Americans have a hard time accepting and facing their own death. Death is almost a taboo and few Americans have seen a dead body. In one study of 198 people, only 35% had seen a dead body. 91% of them had only seen the body after the undertaker has prepared it for the funeral (Vernon 12). Death is scary to Americans and Halloween is a manifestation of the terror and pain of death that they assume exists. Since they cannot face their own death, they are not able to think about the deaths of others. One of the main differences between Day of the Dead and Halloween is that, during Day of the Dead, specific people are remembered. In this way, the dead are once again members of a group and a family and remain a part of the living world (Kelly 104). During Halloween, however, there are no specific people remembered, only fictitious, macabre monsters. Also, Americans have disregarded the religious holidays of All Saints Day and All Souls Day and celebrate only Halloween. Only the supernatural elements of Samhain are present in Halloween because Americans aren't able to face the religious or spiritual sides to death.
In conclusion, even though Day of the Dead and Halloween have the same origins; the different approaches to death have evolved the holiday in two very separate ways. Since Americans are unable to face their own death, they are fixated on the negative and gruesome aspects of death. Day of the Dead is a healthier approach because by helping the souls of the dead move on to the afterlife, the individual is able to get past their fears of death. This combination of grieving with praying is more personal than trick or treating and hopefully it will catch on in the United States.
Works cited
Bethancourt, W.J.. Halloween: Myths, Monsters and Devils. 5 Dec. 2001.
Green, Judith Strupp. "The Days of the Dead in Oaxaca." Death and Dying: Views From Many Cultures. New York: Baywood Publishing Company, Inc. 1972.
Kelley, Patricia Fernandez. "Death in Mexican Folk Culture." Death in America. Ed. David Stannard. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975.
Rupert, Dennis. The History of Halloween- It's Probably Not What You Think. 5 Dec. 2001. < http://www.new-life.net/halowen1.htm>.
Santino, Jack. All Around the Year. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Schneider, Stuart. Halloween in America. 5 Dec. 2001. .
Shibles, Warren. Death: An Interdisciplinary Analysis. Whitewater, Wisconsin:
The Language Press, 1974.
"Some Churches Exploit Halloween: Screams for Jesus." American Atheists. 5 Dec. 2001. .
Vernon, Glenn. Sociology of Death: An Analysis of Death-Related Behavior.
New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1970.