The Mexico File newsletter. Back Issues and Subscriptions available. This event has a long and complex history that has evolved over time, surviving many successive ancient civilizations and the Spanish Conquest. The Day of the Dead is a profoundly significant cultural event and a unique holiday characterized by special foods and confections. What at first may appear to outsiders a bizarrely macabre celebration is actually an important family ritual that recognizes the cycle of life that is the human experience.
Mexican culture recognizes death as an implicit consequence of life.
As in pre-Hispanic times it is seen as the seed of life, a passage to a more authentic existence. Death is embraced in a friendly way, but the Mexican relationship with death is full of subtle irony and mockery. From an early age children make, play with and eat candy skulls and skeletons. Skeleton toys are for both the living and the dead and are used to adorn the offerings for dead children. This may be one reason for the healthy acceptance of death as part of the cycle of life in Mexican culture.