Day of the Dead
October 6, 2011
Did you know that in Mexico, chocolate is used to make offerings during the Day of the Dead festival? This particular fiesta acts as a commemoration to pay tribute and honor all the deceased members of the family. Chocolate and sweets are important components of the festival. People give each other skulls made of chocolate or sugar. The Day of the Dead fete is celebrated throughout the country on the 1st and 2nd of November.
As morose as it may sound, it is in fact a cheerful occasion where departed loved ones are reminisced. Some families even construct altars dedicated to the dead relatives. The altars are filled with flowers, candles, wooden skulls and photos of the dead. The families celebrate and bring to mind the deceased members by eating the favorite foods of those passed. The specific foods that are specially eaten in this celebration are pan de muerto which is a skull-shaped bread and Calabaza en Tacha which is a dessert made with sweet pumpkin, cinnamon, and piloncillo, dark sugar cones.
Other families visit and get together at cemeteries where their relatives are buried. The grave sites are wonderfully bedecked with candles and cempasúchil flower. This orange marigold was the specific flower that the Aztecs, who were the first ones to be associated with chocolate, used to remember their dead. Some families also bring toys for dead children and even bottles of alcoholic liquor to adults.
Each place in Mexico has its own unique cultural style of celebrating. Merriments take place throughout Mexico and they celebrate in high spirits, but the liveliest ones are in Patzcuaro, Oaxaca, Chiapas and San Andres Mixquic which is a small town in Mexico City.
People in Mexico usually perform dances wearing wooden skull masks called calacas. Chocolate and sugar skulls are also made in some parts of the country and the name of the dead person are engraved on the forehead of the skull, a friend or a family member will then eat these.
When the Spaniards invaded Mexico, they deemed this practice as profane and barbaric as the Spaniards viewed death as the end of life. Nonetheless, to the Aztecs, Mayans and old civilizations in Mexico, death is just a continuation of life.
The Spaniards tried to cease the tradition but in vain. However, it is possibly no coincidence that the Day of the Dead festival is celebrated on November 1st which is All Saint's Day, and November 2nd, All Soul's day.
Try booking a trip to Mexico on the Day of the Dead festival just to try it for taste! 🙂
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