Honoring the Dead
10/31/2024
As we move through the cycles of the year and of nature, it is fascinating to ponder the many holidays with similar seasonal themes that have developed over thousands of years of human experience worldwide.
This season, with the plants dying back, leaves falling from the trees, and the daylight hours growing shorter, brings a time of reflection and remembrance.
Many cultures honor ancestors this time of year. Our Korean friends shared that the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrated around the Harvest Moon (usually September or early October), is when they traditionally take food and drink to the graveyards to honor loved ones who have passed on. When visiting an old family gravesite in Washington, my family takes time clearing weeds and tidying the area. There can be a soothing effect to this intentional honoring of those who came before us. I love these connections and similar expressions of remembrance all over the world.
Halloween, Samhain ("Sow-win"), and All Souls Day occur at the end of October and the beginning of November, a point halfway between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. It is seen as a key turning point, moving from the light of summer into the darker days of winter. During this time, when people often feel a closer connection to the dead, they can acknowledge the uncertainties and fears we hold around the spirit world and death, while also remembering and honoring those who have gone before.
The Mexican celebration honoring the dead, Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), begins November 1 and goes overnight into November 2. This celebration existed in ancient Aztec times with skull imagery and customs of bringing food and drink to graveyards in honor of the dead. Combined with All Souls Day by the Spanish Catholic conquistadors, it has evolved over time to include the elaborate parades, costumes, and sugar skulls we think of today.
For Día de Los Muertos, families create an altar or ofrenda in their homes with photos and objects that remind them of loved ones who have passed. Often, they place sugar skulls on the altar with the names of family members. These skulls can be decorated as humans or animals, with bright yellow and orange marigolds featuring prominently.
One year, my children and I made sugar skulls and placed them on our nature table. We honored our two cats that had died over the previous year. This was my girls' first experience with the death of loved ones and a good opportunity to add remembrance to our celebration. It is a lovely tradition that brings out the deeper meanings lost in our modern celebrations of Halloween.
What traditions do you have for remembrance and honoring the cycles of life and death?
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