How is the Day of the Dead different from Halloween? Celebrations in different countries around the globe explored ahead of the 2023 holiday

November 1 marks the beginning of the celebrations for Mexico's Día de los Muertos, popularly known as the Mexican Day of the Dead. Whereas October 31 marks the elusive last day of October and the one day of every year, people across the globe celebrate and frolic in the fun-filled fear offered by the celebration of Halloween.

Although often mistaken as the same celebration, these festivals are uniquely different. Halloween celebrations date back to the ancient Gaelic Samhain festival, associated with the shifting of seasons and rituals to come in contact with spirits. The Day of the Dead dates back to the ancient Mexican Aztecs and Nahua people. The festival is celebrated for remembering, honoring, and reuniting with those who have passed away.

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Halloween and the Day of the Dead

Depending on where you are, it's either the day before Halloween or it is Halloween. Streets filled with Jack-O-lanterns and skeletons hanging from front porches greet a plethora of candy-hungry trick-o-treaters adorning their favorite costumes, ranging anywhere from Freddy Kreuger, Chucky, and Michael Myers to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton.

Halloween celebrations are believed to have had their roots in the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain. The festival marked the shifting of seasons, the end of the harvest season, and the beginning of winter. Celtic Pagan celebratory rituals that marked Samhain include bonfires, Jack-o-lanterns, attempts to contact spirits, and adversely attempts to disguise oneself from spirits by dressing in costumes.

Samhain was the time when the boundaries between the world of the living and the world of the living could be easily crossed. The festival, originating in regions of the UK and Ireland, quickly spread across Europe. Towards the 11th century, the pagan Celtic festival was allegedly Christianized to become All Hallows' Eve, the day before All Hallow's Day (All Saints Day).

The European tradition was allegedly brought to the United States through Immigrants from Ireland and Scotland, who held celebrations in the colonies as early as the 1900s to celebrate the harvest. Some of these festivities, like ghost stories and trick-or-treating, have translated into modern-day Halloween celebrations.

Quite similar, yet quite different from Halloween, the Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1 and November 2. Unlike the fun that stems from terror in modern-day Halloween, the Day of the Dead is usually an abundantly colorful festival. Día de los Muertos is a celebration of the memories of the ones that have moved on from the world.

The Mexican Day of the Dead stretches back to the Aztecs and the Nahua of Central America. Modern-day Day of the Dead celebrations are a mix of the Aztec traditions and the traditions of Catholic Spanish colonizers.

With a strong emphasis on the afterlife, Día de los Muertos is believed to be the only time when the dead can visit the living world. The first day of the festival is believed to be the day the spirits of children visit the living world, while the next day is for the elderly.

According to the Day of the Dead website, the original Aztec tradition dedicated the festival to the “lady of the dead,” goddess Mictecacihuatl, who is believed to watch over the bones of the dead. Catholic Spanish conquerors were not fond of this idea and, in turn, turned it into All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

Modern-day Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico are a colorful ordeal filled with music, flowers, and good food. Offerings like family photos, candles, sugar, tequila, water, and food are placed on beautiful altars decorated with Cempasuchitl, or Marigolds, which are built in cemeteries, homes, or other significant places to welcome dead relatives into the world of the living.

Marigolds are often spread across graveyards, as their fragrance is believed to lead the dead to the homes of their relatives. Unlike the grim Halloween skull decorations that symbolize terror, skulls in Día de los Muertos or Calaveras are decorated with paint and glitter.

One of the most prominent food items placed on the altar to quench their hunger after a tiresome journey into the land of the living is the Pan de Muertos, also known as the Day of the Dead Bread. Some other food items synonymous with the festival are sugar skulls, sopa azteca, pozole, and tamales.

In Guatemala, a kite festival is held on All Saint's Day, November 1, in Santiago Sacatepéquez and Sumpango. Guatemalans create beautifully elaborate kites, some even reaching up to a 30m diameter. The kites act as lanterns that guide the spirits to their loved ones. Fringed paper attached to four sides of the octagonal kites is believed to ward away evil spirits.

Moving back to one of the original birthplaces of Halloween, Ireland also celebrates October 31st by feasting on Barmbrack, a traditional fruitcake, and drinking Lambswool, a traditional cider drink. Inside the Barmbrack is a hidden prize; a ring means the person would get married that year, a pea means the opposite or continuous marital dispute, and a coin signifies prosperity.

Festivals dedicated to the dead hold a rich cultural and traditional history in countries across the globe. On November 2nd, Nicaraguan people honor their ancestors by visiting cemeteries as a family. They renovate and decorate the graves of late relatives with flowers and candles, among other items. The celebration is more subtle than Día de los Muertos but is marked by a beautiful ambiance of joy and cheer.

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