Time to chase spirits and welcome back the dead

Fasten your myth­ic seat­belts. We are head­ed into the lim­i­nal time of year, tra­di­tion­al­ly when winter’s dark­ness encroach­es upon us and the mem­brane between here and the hear after becomes extreme­ly thin. Time to chase spirits.

We have the ancient Irish peo­ple to thank for the sea­son­al­ly over­flow­ing can­dy aisle at Kroger. The cel­e­bra­tion of the pagan fes­ti­val Samain, the time between the autumn equinox and win­ter sol­stice, reminds us it is time to buy a Frozen cos­tume for lit­tle Abigail.

Please for­give me for not attribut­ing Halloween to the “Celts.” I have not been able to utter the word “Celtic” since being berat­ed by an Irish arche­ol­o­gist while crouched inside the 4,000-year-old Parknabinnia wedge tomb in County, Clare, Ireland. “There are no such things as Celts,” he barked, “we are the Irish peo­ple.” Kinda like The Ohio State University, I guess.

Regardless of the seman­tics of lin­eage, the long jour­ney of human rit­u­al is fas­ci­nat­ing. I believe we are intense­ly metaphor­i­cal beings, respond­ing to the “infi­nite regress of tur­tles all the way down,” as anthro­pol­o­gists might opine. We don’t remem­ber why we act the cer­e­mo­ni­al ways we do, but we are dang seri­ous about our rit­u­als. Why else would we be so brave as to let our cherubs knock on strangers’ doors to beg for candy?

Our pas­sion for dress­ing like Spiderman has its ori­gins in Brittain, but there are many analogs of lim­i­nal­i­ty.  I men­tioned tur­tles. That one orig­i­nat­ed in ancient India – human under­stand­ing rests upon the world bal­anc­ing on the back of ele­phants stand­ing on the back of a Super Tortoise, no phone­booth or cape necessary.

In the beau­ti­ful way that human his­to­ry unfolds, we embrace a mashup of Irish Samain and rev­er­ence for Christian saints as All Saints Day on November 1^st. Many cul­tures have extrav­a­gant ways to hon­or loved ones who have passed on. In the British Isles the rit­u­al is called “soul­ing,” and involves bak­ing and giv­ing away a sweet bread known as “soul cake.” Bread baked as an offer­ing to the dead has many iter­a­tions in con­ti­nen­tal Europe, espe­cial­ly Portugal and Spain.

There are ques­tions regard­ing whether bread baked in Mexico for the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) rit­u­al on the sec­ond day of November has indige­nous or European roots. Experts con­tend that sug­ar cane did not exist in the Americas before Spanish con­quest. The annu­al grave-side tra­di­tion that includes round, sweet bread adorned with cross­es and/or skulls, flow­ers, strong spir­its, and music indeed has Spanish roots, but is cel­e­brat­ed with incom­pa­ra­ble fer­vor at ceme­ter­ies through­out Mexico.

Although cos­tumes and make­up abound dur­ing Dia de Muertos, the rit­u­al has noth­ing to do with Halloween. The indige­nous Aztec cus­tom of hon­or­ing gods of the under­world and invit­ing back the dead in August was appro­pri­at­ed by Spanish col­o­niz­ers to align with All Saints Day and All Souls Day in November. Mexico’s Dia de Muertos rit­u­als vary from region to region and are both solemn remem­brances of those who have passed on and joy­ous cel­e­bra­tions of life.

Dia de Muertos tra­di­tions include build­ing alters called ofren­das to hon­or those who have died, dec­o­rat­ing graves with pho­tos of the dead and marigolds to invite return, mak­ing col­or­ful “sug­ar skulls,” that bear the names of those depart­ed, don­ning “Catrina” make-up and cos­tumes, and parad­ing col­or­ful­ly dressed Calacas (skele­tons) in the streets.

The most endur­ing icon of Day of the Dead, a leer­ing skele­ton called “La Calavera Catrina,” was cre­at­ed by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada as a satir­ic com­ment about aris­to­crat­ic Mexican women of the ear­ly 20^th Century. The image was trans­formed into the sym­bol of Mexican nation­al iden­ti­ty by con­stant attri­bu­tions by acclaimed Mexican artist, Diego Rivera.

Rituals illu­mi­nate human intent and con­se­quence. They fos­ter belong­ing and build com­mu­ni­ty, express sea­sons, reveal his­to­ry or rights-of-pas­sage, and fre­quent­ly influ­ence entire soci­eties to aban­don every­day rou­tines to inves­ti­gate, dis­cov­er, and cel­e­brate life’s deep­er meanings. 

I took the pho­to above of the Catrina in the zoca­lo of Oaxaca City dur­ing Dia de Muertos, 2021. You can learn more about Dia de Muertos, see some ofren­das and more Oaxaca City pho­tos through November 18 at Lexington’s Living Arts and Science Center.

https://www.lasclex.org/exhibits