Colorful offerings greet returning souls on Day of the Dead

A colorful ritual that evokes memories are the offerings that are placed on the Day of the Dead in Mexican homes, which represent a way to meet again with the deceased and share with them culinary delights, bread, water, salt, sugar, fruits and, if they were adults, wine and cigars.

According to the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI), these altars are a type of scenery in which our dead participate, coming to drink, eat, rest and live as a way to dialogue with their memory and their life.

The dead altars as we know them today are a reflection of the syncretism of the old and the new world, a cultural mixture in which the Europeans put some flowers, wax, and candles; and the Indians added the incense with their copal, the food and the cempasúchil flower.

THE OFFERING

During the first two days of November, the dead are greeted with natural and intangible elements, plus the smells and fragrances that are born of the flowers, incense and copal.

The fragrances of copal and incense are used to cleanse the place of evil spirits and avoid danger to those who return home.

Water, salt, sugar, candles, copal, incense, flowers, bread, and mats are some essential elements that the offerings must include to preserve their spiritual charm.

Each of them has its own meaning, for example, water represents the source of life, is offered to the souls to quench their thirst after the long journey and to strengthen their return, while salt serves to ensure the soul does not get corrupted on its return trip for the next year.

The light produced by the candles represents hope and faith, a guide so that the deceased can reach their former places and light their return to their home.

In several indigenous communities each candle represents a deceased, that is, the number of candles that the altar will have will depend on the souls that the family wants to receive.

Among the multiple uses of the mat is as bed, table or shroud, but in this celebration it works so that the souls rest, or, as a tablecloth to place the food of the offering. The liquor is for you to remember the great pleasant events during your life and decide to visit us, while a large ash cross serves so that when the soul reaches the altar you can atone for your pending faults.Elaborated in different ways, bread is one of the most precious elements on the altar, it represents the fraternal offering; the Church presents it as the “Body of Christ”.

In the offerings it is also customary to place photographs of those who are no longer there, the image of the souls of purgatory, images of saints, fruits, pumpkin candy, sugar skulls, liquor, a large ash cross and the deceased’s favorite dishes.

The móle with chicken or turkey is the favorite food that many Mexicans put on the altar, although they also add barbecue with everything and consommé.

You can also include liquid chocolate; the prehispanic tradition says that the guests drank that drink that the deceased used to bathe, so that the visitors were imbued with the essence of the deceased.

To receive the souls, the altar is decorated with papel picado, silk and satin fabrics where clay figures also rest.

Text and photo: Agency