"A specific example of this fluid sense of time can be found in the Mexican celebrations of the Dia de los Muertos or 'Day of the Dead.' The Day (or Days) of the Dead coincides with All Saints and All Souls days on the Christian liturgical calendar. Both commemorations are focused on the dead, but the two cannot be equated. The Day of the Dead is a longer festival, lasting at least two to three days, and sometimes longer, and its origins pre-date the Roman Catholic Christian presence in Mexico. The purposes of both the Christian and pre-Christian versions are, however, to remember, honor, and connect with the dead.
"In Mexican tradition, this is done in a variety of ways. Elaborate home altars are constructed that are then decorated with pictures of the deceased, as well as with flowers, candles, incense, candies, and various foods. Among the offerings on the altar are objects the deceased might desire to have, including clothing, cigarettes, and liquor, and foods they might enjoy. This altar remains in the home for a number of days, and the family spends time with the deceased by attending to it and gathering around it. Different days may be devoted to various 'categories' of the deceased: a day to remember children that died usually precedes the day on which adults are remembered. Offerings are prepared as well for those who died without families, so that no one is forgotten.
"Families visit with the dead not only at their home altars, but also at the graves of the departed. The gravesites are decorated with flowers and other objects, and family members bring offerings of what the deceased might desire and food for their own feasting. Families may spend all night long at gravesites: eating, drinking, telling stories, and being present with the dead.
"This celebration of the Day of the Dead is based on the premise that on these days a type of connection with the departed is possible that may not be available at other times. The dead are understood to be truly present. Family members do not gather at the altars simply to remember the dead, but to welcome them and provide for them and be with them. In some places in Mexico, church bells are rung to announce the arrival of the dead and subsequently their departure. The dead are understood to partake of the offerings provided for them, and these 'provisions' ease their way through death. Such partaking is not literal, but consists of extracting the essence of the foods and gifts. Folk tales suggest that those families who do not prepare for and honor the dead will experience negative consequences in this life.
"Decorations for the Day of the Dead feature images of skeletons, calaveras. Special breads, cookies, and candies for the day are decorated with skeletal shapes. One of the candies produced especially for the festival is in the shape of skulls made out of sugar. These skeletal figures are not grotesque or frightening, but playful and even comical. The candy skulls are smiling. The skeletons are engaged in activities, including joyful ones, that are part of living. Common images are of a band of skeletons playing music or a skeleton riding a bicycle. The skeletons may be clothed in appropriate dress and costume.
"These images suggest that the dead are not simply dead and gone but are very much engaged with life. There is, however, no denial of death here. The figures are clearly skeletons. Nor is death ignored. Rather, it is given a particular type of intensified attention as images of life and death are so vividly presented, occupying the same space and time and even the same body! The skeletal images playing instruments and performing tasks seem to suggest a fluidity not only of time and space but also of what it means to be embodied and living.
"It would be easy to dismiss these folk practices as superstitions or as signs of immature religiosity, especially if they seem foreign and even grotesque to our sensibilities. However, such dismissals would overlook the sophisticated and complex understanding of time and space reflected in these practices. On the Day of the Dead, the living and the dead, the past and the present and even the future, this world and other worlds are all in relationship in such a way that the boundaries between them are seen as permeable. This makes for seemingly surprising juxtapositions. The past is not only past: the dead still want to smoke. Gravesites are not just places for mourning and remembrance but for feasting as families celebrate the ongoing connections with those who have died. Generations are bonded together in different ways as the young learn about those who died before they were born. Favorite relatives are remembered along with all the times that were shared together. Problematic family members, dead and alive, are also present, so there is recognition of concerns that remain outstanding, wounds that have not healed. These familial connections also engender hope for the future and a continuing solidarity of relationships.
"These events attend not only to time, but also to space and place. The home altars and the gathering at the gravesite are all about making space and marking place. The altars literally take up space in the home and so remind families of the presence, the being present, of their deceased loved ones. The dead, in that way, have place among the living. The concrete materiality of the altars acknowledges the need for celebrations to be embodied. The decorations and foods are further evidence of that. They suggest that the dead can still enjoy dimensions of embodiment: the pleasures of food and beauty.
"Indeed, it is from such placed embodiedness that the aesthetic sensibility Hispanic theologians point to arises. As Roberto Goizueta suggests, the purpose of life is 'to be,' and being is witnessed to by enjoyment, celebration, and play that are rooted in bodiliness. In this world, life is an end in and of itself. Such life, however, does not exist only in the time and space dimension of those still alive. It encompasses all the living — past, present, and future — in a fluid embrace of relationality. It recognizes the cycle of life and death that constitutes human existence. That cycle also contains the unresolved past and the desired future. In the moment of celebration, thankfulness and sorrow, pleasure and pain, may converge. The smiling skulls stand as symbols of such juxtapositions and convergences.
"Especially in the southwest United States, where the presence and influence of Mexican culture are so vivid, in the last decade or so the Day of the Dead has been gaining popularity as a practice not only among Hispanics, but non-Hispanics as well. While the adoption of this cultural religious practice by those outside the Hispanic community raises questions of cultural appropriation, it also points to the need felt by many to treat time differently, especially in relation to those who have died. The people who construct altars in their homes for the Day of the Dead want to remember and connect with the dead in a way that allows them to be more present. These non-Hispanic practitioners of the Day of the Dead also seem to be seeking a relationship with time that steps out of a simple linear and sequential flow of past to present to future."
