Day of the Dead or Halloween?

Around this time of year, it is always the same argument. From among the moths and cobwebs of their decrepit graves emerges a group of people who protest against the few Halloween-related celebrations that take place in Mexico and desperately plead for the rescue of our beautiful Mexican traditions.

To these people, I say: relax.

Halloween has nothing to do with the imminent death of the Day of the Dead tradition, which is now celebrated in few places and is reaching a natural obsolescence. The Day of the Dead is certainly a very beautiful tradition with a very interesting meaning, but it is disappearing more each year. It is not because we are doing something wrong, but simply because traditions also have their own life cycle. Sometimes they die, and sometimes they transform. For example, the figure of “La Catrina,” which has NOTHING to do with the Day of the Dead, is now being used as an emblem of the holiday. The origin of “La Calavera Garbancera,” as this character by cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada was originally called, is connected to criticism of the country's situation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has NOTHING to do with the Day of the Dead, yet there is a group of people using it as a banner for recovering the Day of the Dead tradition without even knowing how it is celebrated or what that tradition means.

Moreover, in Mexico, cultural expressions related to Halloween—a direct influence from our neighbors to the north—have less to do with the “trick-or-treating” tradition and more to do with parties in bars, clubs, and event venues where people wear costumes.

In other words, at this time of year in Mexico, we are not celebrating either one exactly as prescribed. In fact, these two traditions are not even celebrated on the same day, but the ignorant people who rend their garments while pleading for the rescue of our traditions probably do not even know that.

So what happens in Mexico at this time of year? We simply have fun, each in our own way: some enjoy visiting an exhibition of Day of the Dead altars, others go to a costume party, others eat pan de muerto, others take their children in costume to shopping malls, and others participate in a parade of “catrinas”...

Please relax and get on with your lives.