Dia de Muertos

November 1 and 2 is Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), holiday in Mexico. It’s also celebrate in similar forms in the surrounding Latin American countries, as well as the latino community in the United States. It’s a day of celebration and honouring the dead.

There are several notable elements of the tradition.

Ofrenda

An ofrenda is the altar for honouring the dead. It is setup at home, as well as churches and cemetaries. It contains many elements:

• on the topmost tier, towards the back, are photos of the dead, saints, statues, crucifixes
• the second tier contains things that make the dead feel at home: favourite foods, drinks, toys, books, etc.
• the bottom tier contaisn candles, towels, washbasins, mirrors, etc. This is for the dead to refresh themselves upon arrival.

As you can see, the ofrenda is treated as if you have a guest visiting and staying over. Marigold flowers are set up to guide them home, because it’s bright and colourful. Families will go out to graves to clean up and decorate.

It’s very much like Halloween but without the underlying horror theme. In fact, it’s not uncommon for families to have picnics in cemetaries and hangout there. It’s contrasted with Halloween, where cemetaries are spooky and scary. But for día de muertos, it’s just that time of the year when spirits come to visit, more akin to Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Pan de Muerto

A food tradition of día de meurtos is pan de muerto. These are pan dulce (sweet breads) that are decorated and orange flavoured. They’re offered to spirits as the “essence of the bread nourishes” them and the food is thought to not have much nutritional value after offering.

They’re decorative and shaped as a round loaf, with crossbones shapes. The center is a round nub that represents tears shed for the dead. Or some say it represents a heart, while the bones represent a skeleton.

They’re customarily served with atole, a warm spiced beverage that is thickened with masa harina. Champarrado is a chocolate atole and is similar to “mexican hot chocolate”.

I made a bread using a recipe on Mexico in My Kitchen. As a recipe itself, it’s nothing surprising. It’s an sweet brioche loaf, that is flavoured with orange zest and orange blossom. When finished baking, it is topped with sugar coating.

Summary

It’s hard to learn about another culture without a guide or being immersed by it. I’ve found that cooking food can be a bridge between this, as many dishes are doable, with a little bit of shopping and research. It’s fine to learn the traditions and culture through the foods they eat or serve. Food is a universal human experience that we can all mostly agree on.

One example from East Asian cultures is the harvest festival and mooncakes. There’s lore surrounding that gives context to a seemingly arbitrary tradition. I mean, why are they called mooncakes and why do they only come around once a year? This is rhetorical question for the readers but it’s questions like these that I use to keep myself in check when others are trying to learn about the traditions I grew up with.