dia de los muertos decorations pottery barn

During this brief period, the souls of the dead awaken and return to the living world to feast, drink, dance and play music with their loved ones. On the Day of the Dead, it’s believed that the border between the spirit world and the real world dissolve. In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadores brought such traditions with them to the New World, along with a darker view of death influenced by the devastation of the bubonic plague.Įl Día de los Muertos is not, as is commonly thought, a Mexican version of Halloween, though the two holidays do share some traditions, including costumes and parades. In medieval Spain, people would bring bring wine and pan de ánimas (spirit bread) to the graves of their loved ones on All Souls Day they would also cover graves with flowers and light candles to illuminate the dead souls’ way back to their homes on Earth. Some of these customs survived even after the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, which (unofficially) adopted them into their celebrations of two Catholic holidays, All Saints Day and All Souls Day, celebrated on the first two days of November. In ancient Europe, pagan celebrations of the dead also took place in the fall, and consisted of bonfires, dancing and feasting.

This inspired the contemporary Day of the Dead practice in which people leave food or other offerings on their loved ones’ graves, or set them out on makeshift altars called ofrendas in their homes. In Nahua rituals honoring the dead, traditionally held in August, family members provided food, water and tools to aid the deceased in this difficult journey. Only after getting through nine challenging levels, a journey of several years, could the person’s soul finally reach Mictlán, the final resting place. Upon dying, a person was believed to travel to Chicunamictlán, the Land of the Dead.

The Aztecs and other Nahua people living in what is now central Mexico held a cyclical view of the universe, and saw death as an integral, ever-present part of life.

The roots of the Day of the Dead, celebrated in contemporary Mexico and among those of Mexican heritage in the United States and around the world, go back some 3,000 years, to the rituals honoring the dead in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

Dia de los muertos decorations pottery barn