Many cemeteries in Mexico closing for Day of the Dead
MEXICO CITY — This nation’s Day of the Dead celebration this weekend won’t be the same in a year so marked by death, in a country where more than 90,000 people have died of COVID-19.
Many of those had to be cremated rather than buried, and even for those with graves to visit, the pandemic has forced authorities in most parts of Mexico to close cemeteries to prevent the traditional Nov. 1-2 observances, in which entire families clean and decorate tombs, cover them with orange marigolds, light candles and chat with their deceased relatives, perhaps over a glass of their favorite beverage.
On Sunday, many residents of the impoverished suburb of Valle de Chalco, east of Mexico City, visited a recently opened overflow section of the local cemetery to clean the simple graves of their loved ones — many still just marked by dirt mounds — because they had heard the graveyards would be closed on the actual holiday. “A lot of people came to fix up their (relatives’) graves before the Day of the Dead,” said Jose Juan Rivera Almazan, the cemetery manager.
He noted the new section of the graveyard “is filling up quickly. We do not know if that’s because of the disease,” though it is clear there is a steady trickle of new burials of COVID victims; they are easy to recognize because their coffins come wrapped in plastic.
On a normal Day of the Dead, Rivera Almazan said, “you can’t evenwalk through here, it is so full. People, visitors, vendors’ stands.”
This year, though, the cemetery will be quiet.
Jacinta Jimenez Viviano lost her husband, retired manual laborer Vicente Dominguez Alejo, to COVID-19 this year. He died in a hospital, after almost no visits; Jacinta was occupied with her son, who also fell ill but recovered. Her husband, a diabetic, was not so lucky.
Knowing shewould not be able to come Nov. 2 — when deceased adults are honored — she brought flowers Sunday to plant at her husband’s dusty grave. She said the simple act of tending the grave was reassuring.
“I feel this represents hope that we will make it because, thank God, these days of the dead are very important to Mexicans,” Jimenez Viviano said. “We will leave a little offering for him now, and later, when we can, we will return.”
Born of pre-Hispanic rituals that may have lasted 20days, and combined with European elements brought by the Spaniards, Day of the Dead is rooted in the idea that the spirits of the dead should know they are loved and have a home; if they don’t, they might wander aimlessly.