Day of the Dead, originally a pagan celebration, is now celebrated on November 1st and is a festive holiday in Mexico where people deliver special meals to cemeteries for the dead. Other countries have their own customs to remember the deceased.
While Halloween now brings to mind trick-or-treating and fancy costumes, the celebration was originally intended not as a fun holiday but as a day to remember those who have died. Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, is celebrated around the world on October 31st or November 1st, although the second date has become the more popular, perhaps to make it different from Halloween.
Day of the Dead has its origins in pagan cultures like the Aztecs, which explains why countries like Mexico have kept the practice alive, while other cultures have slowly forgotten the original meaning of the holiday. More than 300 years old, the celebration was originally a bloodier affair that included human sacrifices to the death gods.
In Mexico, for example, Day of the Dead is a national and celebratory holiday. The atmosphere is festive and people take to the streets to celebrate the continuation of life in a new dimension, rather than mourn the absence of their loved ones. Most people celebrate by cooking special meals and delivering them to cemeteries, where they are left to be “eaten” by the dead. These offerings can be as simple as bread or as elaborate as three-course meals, and often include flowers, toys for dead children, alcoholic beverages, blankets and pillows, and hundreds of white candles scattered over graves. Some people spend the night in cemeteries, while others retire to their homes for a family meal and the construction of small shrines to remember their loved ones.
In other countries, customs for celebrating Day of the Dead vary, but still keep the deceased as the common ground for celebration. In the Czech Republic, especially Prague, the day has become a mix of Halloween and formal holidays, with people wearing masks and lighting candles. Most European countries where Catholicism is the dominant religion have long commemorated the day. Celebration tends to be more somber and people choose to visit local churches or take flowers to the cemetery but skip the celebratory parties.
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