Ian Jacobs' Mexico and other matters: Day of the Dead in Mexico

When we returned to our hotel in Mexico City, we found the lobby decorated in preparation for the Day of the Dead on 1 November. The receptionist joked that the skeletal couple were guests who had not paid their bills.

Hotel La Casona, Colonia Roma, Mexico City

Apparently, the phoney Day of the Dead procession with which a recent James Bond film starts, has been adopted in Mexico City as a tourist attraction. In 1975 I was taken to a more traditional celebration in Mixquic, a small town within the modern Mexico City. Mixquic was full of visitors and sellers of food and drink. In the churchyard families sat by the graves and enjoyed a meal with their dead. The highlight of the day was a competition of skeleton puppets. Skeletons might rise from their coffins, dance or perform other exploits. One acknowledgement to modernity was a skeleton that performed the antics of a popular TV game show of the time, called Sube Pelayo, sube (roughly “Climb Mr. Nobody, climb”). Contestants climbed a greasy pole to grab money and other prizes from the top of the pole. In Mixquic, Pelayo was a skeleton.

The Day of the Dead celebrations are a hybrid of prehispanic and Christian traditions. The many and varied societies of Ancient Mexico shared a preoccupation with death and the underworld. Shamans entered caves (thought to be the entrance to the underworld) to receive trance-induced messages from the gods. Powerful people were buried with offerings, and sometimes sacrificed humans, to accompany them in the afterlife. Sacrificial victims, drugged to facilitate sacrifice, were considered honoured beings who would receive rewards in the underworld, once a priest had removed their hearts: a dubious honour to be sure. The Spanish clerics abhorred human sacrifice, but shared a preoccupation with death and the afterlife. Faced with the task of converting thousands of indigenous people, most of whom understood not a word of Spanish, it suited priests to merge the two traditions.

Near our hotel is the famous Pastelería Suiza (“Swiss Patisserie”), which had on offer an array of death-related goods.

Pan de muerto

A breakfast treat is a pan de muerto (“bread of the dead”), often filled with cream. There are, of course, the brightly coloured skulls made of sugar or of sweet potato or chocolate. Another delight is huesitos de santos (“saints’ bones”) made of white marzipan filled with egg yolk, or tumbas (“tombs” or “coffins”) of chocolate or sugar with lids open to reveal the skeleton.

Día de los Muertos treats at the Pastelería Suiza

The Dolores Olmedo Museum, famed for its collection of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo works, organizes an annual themed display of skeletons (known in Mexico as calacas). This year’s theme was the triumphs of Mexican engineering and architecture.