The Day of the Dead

 

Halloween owes its origin to the Celtic belief that on this night the dead return and spend time with their families around the hearth they knew in this life, enjoying their favorite food and drink. Remarkably the people of Mexico had a similar ancient belief about the next night, the night between November 1 and 2.
Ann Roy moved from the United States to Mexico. In 1995 she wrote an article in Commonweal about her experiences with the Mexican customs surrounding "The Day of the Dead." She called the article "A Crack Between The Worlds: The Mexican Way of Death." At first she found these customs frightening, but a neighbor helped her to understand that these practices remind us "that we are all mortal, and that the living are not really separated from the dead at all: life and death ar one single, never-ending continuity." The author then tells the following story:
Some years later we moved to Tepoztlan, Morelos--the pre-Aztec mountain village renowned for its powerful magical traditions--and an ancient Tepozteca neighbor came to tell me about the "crack between the worlds" that opens up there soon after midnight on Novermber first, and is held open for one mystical hour by the concerted ringing of all the church bells in the valley. She explained that she was telling me about this opportunity well ahead of time so that I could complete all the necessary preparations and be quietly ready to call and receive my own dead when this precious moment arrived--when all the bells began to toll softly together. I would have to be prepared early, she said, because my dead had so much farther to come--all the way from the United States!
"Some people not from here feel afraid at this time," she added. "But that is only because they do not understand. No one with any sense is going to call back people they disliked or feared. Why waste such a wonderful opportunity to be together with those we love? So it is only our loved ones we call, and during that time when the bells hold the door open, this valley is filled with the powerful, loving presence of many souls. They embrace us and we them, and we are all together again, for a while."