More on the Day of the Dead

From the Houston Chronicle:

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com Section: Editorial

Nov. 1, 2004, 1:33AM

DAY OF THE DEAD

Rites to celebrate transition have affirmed life and strengthened cultures over centuries.
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Tomorrow's date, Nov. 2, has been momentous in these parts for years — more than 500 years, in fact. Long before the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November became America's day to choose its leaders, Nov. 2 marked the profound, joyous and complex Day of the Dead, a holiday so resonant it still inspires yearly festivals, observances and artworks.

For Mexicans, El Dia De Los Muertos is a multilayered holiday honoring dead loved ones. Spanish conquistadors and their priests gave the New World All Soul's Day, a solemn Catholic holiday when dead souls are thought to walk the earth. But they never neutralized the coinciding Aztec rite — which celebrated death, the cyclical nature of life, and the fleeting chance to interact with beings from another world.

To welcome their dead loved ones home, families today craft brilliant altars adorned with loved ones' photographs. The offerings include marigolds; favorite drinks and snacks of the deceased; candles; and floating tissue paper banners. On Nov. 2, relatives troop to the graveyard to clean and decorate the family graves, pausing after their labor to pray, picnic and toast the honored dead.

In Anglo culture, the corresponding celebration is Halloween, a prank-filled, slightly anxious holiday. But for Mexicans, this yearly ghost-return is full of cheer and contemplation. It allows families to celebrate their ongoing bond with dead loved ones. And on a deeper level, it represents a portal. El Dia de Los Muertos is the one day when the wall between two worlds foreign to one another is breached. Death, rather than being alien and menacing, simply is another country to which mortals can periodically gain access. The contact gives them strength and helps to banish helplessness and fear.

A few of the same feelings color Americans' own observance of Election Day, which this year falls on Nov. 2. Election Day also provides a portal: Once every four years, it gives ordinary people direct access to the most remote regions of power. The contact is welcome, solemn and, above all, vital to both sides. Like the Aztec holiday, Nov. 2 reminds and reassures Americans that transition is a part of life. To embrace it properly, all one needs to do is vote.