Mexico returned Sunday to mass commemorations of the Day of the Dead, after traditional visits to graveyards were prohibited last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, reports AP News.
Remembering the dead
The holiday begins Oct. 31, remembering those who died in accidents; it continues Nov. 1 to mark those who died in childhood, and then those who died as adults on Nov. 2.
Observances include entire families cleaning and decorating graves, which are covered with orange marigolds.
At both cemeteries and at home altars, relatives light candles, put out offerings of the favorite foods and beverages of their deceased relatives.
A special alter
There was a special altar in downtown Mexico City dedicated to those who died of COVID-19. Relatives were allowed into a fenced-off plaza and offered equipment to print out photos of their loved ones, which they could then pin, along with handwritten, messages on a black wall.
It was a quiet, solemn remembrance in a country where coronavirus deaths touched almost all extended families.
COVID death toll
Mexico has over 288,000 test-confirmed deaths, but probable coronavirus mortalities as listed on death certificates suggest a toll closer to 440,000, by some counts the fourth-highest in the world.
For a country where people usually die surrounded by relatives, COVID-19 was particularly cruel, as loved ones were taken off alone in plastic tents, to die alone in isolation.
The parade of dancing skeletons
Tens of thousands of Mexico City — almost all wearing masks, despite the city’s relatively high vaccination rate — gathered along the city’s main boulevard Sunday to watch the parade of dancing skeletons, dancers and floats.
There were few references to coronavirus in the parade, but there was a whole section of skeleton-dressed actors representing Mexico City’s street traders and vendors.
“We are here to celebrate life!” Mexico City Tourism Secretary Paola Felix Diaz said in kicking off the parade.
More risky group activities like Halloween-style costume parties and trick-or-treating have still not recovered from the pandemic. But children took the opportunity to dress up in Mexico-style Day of the Dead costumes or as red-clad guards from the Netflix series “Squid Game.”
But Mexico has long had a different attitude toward death, more social, more accepting than in many parts of the world. Wakes and funerals here are often elaborate, days-long events gathering entire neighborhoods and extended families for eating, praying and remembering.
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Source: AP News
