If we talk about gods, the most important on this date is the Aztec Goddess of the underworld. The Day of the Dead is one of the most important celebrations in Mexico, it is the time when Mexicans remember their loved ones who have left this plane. Strangely, it is not a gloomy celebration, but rather involves joy, many colors and traditional gastronomy.
The day of the Dead
The celebration begins on October 31 when offerings are placed in all homes to receive their deceased. These are not simple arrangements, but depending on the region, it is how the configuration of the altar is arranged, which often includes several levels, each one with a special meaning. But among the elements that cannot be missing from the Day of the Dead offerings are water, salt, candles, marigolds, petate, chopped paper, bread, sugar skulls, liquor and the typical food of the place.
Mexicans receive November 1st by keeping vigil in the pantheons, along with the graves of those deceased children who saw the arrival of death at a very young age. Then on November 2 the same thing happens but with the rest of the souls who are believed to come to visit this plane during the days of celebration.
The origin of the Day of the Dead undoubtedly comes from the pre-Hispanic traditions that were practiced in Mexico before the Spanish. Due to a misrepresentation, it is believed that the traditional people who lived in what is now Mexican territory were merely Aztecs; however, according to records from the colonial period, the Aztec empire was formed in 1427, just a century before the conquest.
This is why the traditions that gave rise to the Day of the Dead probably date back many centuries and probably emerged from the Toltec people who inhabited central Mexico.
A celebration of the goddess Mictecacíhuatl, the Aztec goddess of the underworld
The Aztec pantheon of gods, which surely adopted deities from other peoples in the region, included Mictecacíhuatl, Aztec goddess of the underworld and death. Mythology says that Mictecacíhuatl was sacrificed when she was just a baby and magically she managed to grow to adulthood in the underworld. There she married Mictlantecuhtli with whom she later reigned over Mictlán.
She is often depicted with flayed skin and an open skeletal jaw and was associated with both death and resurrection. According to one of the myths of the Aztec tradition, the husbands and kings of the underworld called Mictlán, one day collected bones so that in this way, they could be resurrected in the land of the living.
But the fear of Mictecacíhuatl and Mictlantecuhtli on the part of the people made them look for a way to appease their desire to return to the world of the living and they began the tradition of burying their deceased with food and precious objects, in addition to a celebration dedicated entirely to the goddess of Mictlán.
Archaeologists don’t know much about what the tradition was like in its peak years, but they assume it involved incense burning, chanting and dancing. They believe that it was celebrated throughout the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, a month that lasted 20 days and corresponded to the end of July and the beginning of August.
The syncretism that gave life to the current tradition
When the Spanish arrived in America, they undertook the evangelization of all the peoples who inhabited the region from Mexico to South America. However, the original settlers refused to abandon their traditions, so the Spanish saw the need to generate syncretisms capable of eradicating customs.
This is how they saw the need to move the celebrations to Mictecacihuatl from the end of July to the beginning of November to coincide with Allhallowtide, All Saints’ Eve and All Souls’ Day.
In this way, the celebration of Mictecacíhuatl ended up becoming what we know today, which surely took elements from both traditions and is now one of the most important days in all of Mexico.