When I was little, on October 31 the streets near my grandmother’s house were filled with children who went from house to house shouting “We want Halloween!”.
Costumes of skulls, devils, ghosts and more went looking for candy in certain houses. After years of experience, one already knew which neighbor gave good candies and which one came out demanding that they not say “Halloween” but “Calaverita”, since traditions in danger of extinction had to be preserved and not give way to the culture of another country.
Today that neighbor may be proud of achieving what he wanted or he may simply know that even though we asked for Halloween, we never left aside the Mexican roots that, during the next two days, were of the utmost importance, at least spiritually.
Halloween and Day of the Dead are not at odds, it is the people who have sought to compare the similarities in symbols and dates, so it is important to know what makes them different in order to celebrate them correctly and without remorse.
Estate
While the pre-Hispanic culture celebrated their dead for a whole month, the Spanish conquerors had two special days to celebrate all the saints and all the souls, so in the end the day of the dead was established as the first of November for the arrival for children and November 2 for adults.
Halloween, at least in the United States, began around 1840 and its origins come from the old continent when Irish and English immigrants adopted Celtic traditions, including Samhain, which implies that there is a line that separates the earthly world from the “other world” and that line gets thinner around October 31.
What does each mean?
This is where the festivities are most polarized. Halloween involves warding off evil spirits, terrifying masks and decorated houses are used to protect against what may come, while Day of the Dead is the opposite.
On those dates we seek to help the deceased to arrive home safely, they are awaited with love and joy and are even visited in the cemeteries.
Celebration
Halloween wasn’t always a holiday where kids dress up to trick-or-treat and teens dress up for the best parties of the year. In the past sweets were an exchange with evil spirits in exchange for leaving people alone.
Day of the Dead, thanks to the pre-Hispanic mixture with Catholicism, is full of religious celebrations, but the most important thing are the offerings, which can be prepared even a week in advance depending on the area in which it is celebrated.
The Day of the Dead altars usually have the characteristic cempasúchil flower, chopped paper, candles, sugar skulls and typical food or at least the favorite of the deceased that is expected to arrive in the first days of November.
Importance
Both are important holidays. The United States knows that it is one of its festivities replicated in almost the entire world and the day of the dead is a tradition that is celebrated in Mexico, part of Guatemala and even the Caribbean, as well as in much of the United States due to the number of Mexicans in that country.
The important thing is not to lose the notion that these are different festivities and you don’t have to put them on a scale. It is perfectly justifiable to celebrate both as long as it is clear what they represent.
An example that shows that not everything is black and white is the Halloween parade, which takes place every year in New York and is one of the most important of the year, while the first Day of the Dead parade in Mexico happened after it appeared. fictionalized in a James Bond movie, which made it happen amid criticism and controversy.
In a globalized world, the best thing to do is celebrate diversity by understanding and respecting the traditions of others.