MAYA DAY OF THE DEAD IN MÉXICO - HANAL PIXAN

The dead are alive … Today is the Day of the Dead. What the Maya call Hanal Pixan. The Mexican Day of the Dead is related to America’s love of Halloween – horror movies, sugar-crazed trick or treat kids and inanely grinning pumpkins.

But in Mexico it’s more focused on street parties, cartoon skulls and devout, family picnics cleaning graves.

It’s no secret that all cultures across the planet across time have respected and remembered their ancestors in some ritualized way (for example in China, it’s known as Qing Ming: Tomb Sweeping Day).

But the origins of Halloween go back over 2000 years to the Celts in Britain and Ireland. They celebrated Samhain (pronounced Sow-in) at the end of Autumn, when they understood that winter brought more deaths; this was the time to connect with their dead with bonfires, food, and masks.

Later Christianity arrived, Samhain was assimilated into the Medieval holidays of All Hallows’ Eve, Hallowmas, and All Souls’ Day (October 31, November 1 and 2).

So how does this relate to the Maya? A world away from Europe?

Well, with the arrival of Columbus there followed fortune-seekers, soldiers and missionaries flooding the Americas. And these – often, over-zealous – Christians were hell-bent on local conversions. So like that earlier era in Europe, local customs were incorporated into conquering Christian beliefs to win over converts.

So a once-ancient Mayan ritual of worshipping the Gods of Death (like: Ixtab & Ah Puch) became a day for dead relatives. And in other parts of Mexico, Aztec customs also became part of this colonizing process. (Although the Spanish truly believed they were rescuing the locals from the grips of Satan; you know – human sacrifices, trophy skulls, etc).