An offering to the dead
- Tiz Creel
- Feb 25
- 3 min read
The Day of the Dead is a ritual intended to draw us closer to our loved ones who have passed, allowing us to converse with their memory and life.
A Tale of Two Worlds
Mesoamerica is a region where societies flourished for more than 3,000 years in central and southern Mexico and much of Central America before European contact and subsecuent invation. These cultures held an intricate view of life, death, and the afterlife. The "cult of the dead" or "ancestor worship" corresponds to an elaborate and complex eschatology intrinsic to Mesoamerican cultures.
Death was central to their religious beliefs, mythology, worldview, and symbolism. Life and death were seen as interconnected between the opposing states. Death was not an end but a transition integral to the cycles of nature. The cosmos was perceived as layered and interconnected, often divided into three realms: the heavens, the earthly plane, and the underworld. Souls faced obstacles set by the gods to reach Mictlán (the underworld) for eternal rest. After four years of challenges testing their spirit, souls arrived at Mictlán’s gates, welcomed by the lord and goddess of death. The Mesoamerican belief held that the dead could return periodically, particularly during specific festivals, guided by rituals and offerings.
Across the Aclantic Ocean, the festivities of the 1st and 2nd of November originated in Medival Europe and were instituted by the Catholic Church. November 1st celebrated All Saints, including unknown saints, while November 2nd was dedicated to souls in Purgatory, with prayers and offerings helping them cleanse their sins to achieve salvation. When Spanish colonisers arrived in the 16th century, they aimed not only to control the territory but also to convert the indigenous people to Catholicism. Missionaries sought to replace indigenous beliefs with Christian doctrines. Outnumbered, they were unable to eradicate native practices, so the missionaries gradually absorbed Indigenous elements into Catholic observances.
Syncretism was, in part, a form of resistance. Indigenous people creatively adapted, outwardly complying while maintaining their traditions and beliefs. This subtle resistance allowed them to retain a degree of cultural autonomy, ensuring that pre-Hispanic symbols, deities, and cosmologies survived beneath the surface of Catholic guise. Indigenous communities embedded their gods and symbols directly inside the Catholic churches the Spanish forced them to build. They placed idols, ceremonial items, and sacred stones under churches throughout Mesoamerica. In this way they maintaining the spiritual continuity that the Spanish intended to erase. They continued to worship their gods, albeit under new symbols and names. This dual adherence allowed Mesoamerican spirituality to persist.
When pre-Hispanic ceremonies for the dead were eradicated and banned, all ancestral practices and beliefs naturally shifted to the celebrations in November. An old Mesoamerican custom was bringing food as offerings to their deceased. This would have once been condemned, as Christianity does not accept the idea that the dead can return to the world of the living, much less share food with their families. Strangely enough, the belief that the souls of the dead return to earth and have food was also present in the Spanish All Souls' Day, notably in Asturias. Regardless, this tradition faded over the years.
Rather than a syncretism (a mixture of external factors), a synthesis occurred (the unification of principles within beliefs). Although indigenous peoples continued their practices covertly, over time, they adopted Christian forms until they almost completely merged. By the late 19th century, the festivities surrounding the Day of the Dead began to be reinvented to reduce the Catholic significance and influence. From then on, "death" took precedence over the "sacred" and a gradual, almost imperceptible replacement of All Saints' by the Day of the Dead for children and All Souls' by the Day of the Dead for adults.
Tiz Creel of Living Things Studio ©2026
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