In today’s world, where people are obsessed with prolonging life, I was amazed by when I heard of the eccentric few who celebrated death.
Practiced for more than 3,000 years, the Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos is celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November in Mexico. An empty room is converted into an altar. Favorite ofrendas (offerings) are laid out for the dead, as it is believed that the dead visit their living relatives to communicate. Some of the ofrendas stand for elements of nature that directly or indirectly create a human form. The perishable eatables represent the Earth, paper cut-outs stand for Wind, a wash-bowl or a basin for Water, and candles for Fire. Apart from these things, wooden skull, crosses, wreaths and flowers too are placed on the altar.
A large city parade, visit to the graveyard or creating an altar - everything says that death in this land is celebrated, embraced, sometimes mocked but seldom feared. As the Nobel winning Mexican writer Octavio Paz says in the Labyrinth of Solitude: “death is not hidden away: he looks at it face to face, with impatience, disdain or irony."
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