Dawn of a new Day of the Dead
Zombie shows, Halloween, even politics are changing Mexico’s cherished tradition
MEXICO CITY— Hollywood movies, zombie shows, Halloween and even politics are fast changing Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, which traditionally consisted of quiet family gatherings at the graves of their departed loved ones, bringing them music, drink and conversation.
Mexico’s capital was holding its first Day of the Dead parade Saturday, complete with floats, giant skeleton marionettes and more than 1,000 actors, dancers and acrobats in costumes. Lourdes Berho, CEO of the government’s Mexico Tourism Board, said 135,000 people were expected to attend.
But that impressive spectacle has never been a part of traditional Day of the Dead celebrations.
The idea was born out of the imagination of a scriptwriter for last year’s James Bond movie Spectre. In the film, whose opening scenes were shot in Mexico City, Bond chases a villain through crowds of revellers in what resembled a parade of people in skeleton outfits and floats.
It’s a bit of a feedback loop: Just as Hollywood dreamed up a Mexican spectacle to open the film, once millions had seen the movie, Mexico had to dream up a celebration to match it.
“We knew that this was going to generate a desire on the part of people here, in Mexicans and among tourists, to come and participate in a celebration, a big parade,” Berho said.
Traditionally, on the Nov. 1-2 holiday, Mexicans set up altars with photographs of the dead and plates of their favourite foods in their homes. They gather at their loved ones’ gravesides to drink, sing and talk to the dead.
Mexico’s traditional view of the dead was never ghoulish or frightful. The dead were seen as the “dear departed,” people who remained close even after death.
“I don’t think that will change,” Johanna Angel, an arts and communication professor at Mexico’s IberoAmerican University, said. “I think Mexico maintains the sense of remembering the dead with closeness, not fright.”
Indeed, Mexicans still enjoy the graveside celebrations. And Mexicans have changed the holiday themselves, without outside influences, making it a time to express social protest. Many have erected public shrines for the nearly 30,000 disappeared in Mexico’s drug war. In recent years, prostitutes have put on skull masks and erected a shrine to murdered prostitutes.
Day of the Dead — itself an amalgam of Spanish and pre-Hispanic beliefs — seems likely to survive, despite the rapid changes, in a festivalloving country that has long managed to successfully absorb many outside influences.
“Any opportunity for a festival is welcome,” Angel noted, “and with any influences from at home or abroad.”
As Jesus Rodriguez, one of the organizers of the popular local Zombie Walk, put it, “We love these days, Day of the Dead, Halloween and Zombies, that is the reason why this crowd is here year after year.”