Offerings, Day of the Dead Rituals - San Miguel de Allende

Although November is known as the month of the souls, with commemorative masses held all month, November 1 and 2 are the only days that are nationally celebrated. November 1 is Día de Todos los Santos (All Saints Day), honoring all saints of the Catholic Church and the souls of children. November 2, Día de los Fieles Difuntos (All Souls Day), is the day that is celebrated at the local panteón. In the evening, families visit the local cemeteries to clean and prepare graves with offerings, and altars are created in homes according to family custom.

Although the traditional altar comprises seven levels, representing the seven paths souls take to arrive at Mictlán (pre-Hispanic underworld), contemporary altars have become simpler. However, the elements of the altar remain essentially the same: flowers, candles, figures and food. According to an expert on local traditions, current practices can be traced back to the time of the Virreinato (sixth, seventh and eighth centuries), when the pre-Hispanic cult of the dead was mixed with Spanish traditions and Catholicism. “Spaniards would place oranges and sugarcane as offerings, and also wheat, which the native Mexicans transformed into bone- and skull-shaped bread. The bread figures, also made of corn and honey, were decorated with seeds and consumed with atole (a drink made from ground corn). They offered to the spirits of their dead the fruits of their harvests.” According to the expert, the offerings on San Miguel altars are also products of the local harvest, such as dishes made from pumpkin, chilacayote, sweet potato and chayote, and are adorned with local wildflowers such as the yellow xotol. Traditional decorative items such as favorite clothing, food and personal items are placed atop the typically purple, pink or black papel picado, and lots of candles are lit to guide the returning muertitos so they don’t get lost on their way to their homes. Although some altars are elaborate, expensive creations, it is common for rural families to place their offerings on a simple petate (woven bed roll). “The dead become soil and ashes, returning to the Earth, and as the custom was to bury the deceased rolled up in a petate, so it continues,” he said. He recounts that after the Revolution at the turn of the 20th century, religious ceremonies were celebrated at the town’s main churches, the Oratorio and the Parroquia. “It became customary for all church bells to toll at 2pm on November 1. In the main churches, priests created funeral pyres, covered in black velvet and at times with coffins, around which families congregated to make offerings to remember their muertitos,” recalls Luna, who attended several such ceremonies in the Parroquia. Since the 1950s the elaborate structures are no longer placed in the churches. Instead, altars adorn homes and some public places. Although many family altars are now located in front rooms to permit public viewing, in the past it was a much more private affair open to only the most intimate family circle. “It is very good that the tradition has now become public. Despite constant changes and modern advances, this popular custom continues to grow. I feel that as Mexicans we identify more with Día de los Muertos than with other customs such as Halloween.”