As the commemoration of All Souls and All Saints approaches I observe local children preparing for Halloween and the usual 'trick and treating'.
What an impoverished tradition we have here, derived from the USA. In Australia, young children dress up in anything they can find, often unrelated to Halloween: black tights, witches' hats, horror masks, Superman vests, Batman capes, and then visit their neighbours for sweets. They do not sing, dance or perform, and there is not much sense of what it means, or a prevailing image.
In contrast there are other traditions in which the darkness and mystery of death are celebrated with more dramatic rituals. Death is embraced with relish and macabre hilarity, reminiscent of the Middle Ages, when death was physically much closer. Illness and plagues brought death regularly home.
Customs have changed today, as death is sanitised and dead bodies are quickly moved to morgues. It is rare to bring a body home and for the family to gather for its own domestic ritual of farewell. The physicality of death is concealed.
In Mexico, the Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, is a holiday, and preparations begin early in October for the celebrations of 1 and 2 November, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Crackers explode and fireworks go off in great bursts during the night. The dominant image is the skeleton.
There are skeletons everywhere in Oaxaca right now (a town in south-west Mexico). After the first jolt of surprise I became intrigued by the skulls and skeletons in every doorway, shop window, hotel foyer, restaurant and courtyard. They grinned, bobbed in the breeze and sometimes fell over, only to be carefully picked up and put back on their chairs.
The Day of the Dead is not a gloomy celebration but rather a recognition of death as part of life. The skeletons are decorated and dressed with hats, feathers and flowers. Some of the skulls are painted or illuminated, and the effect is astonishing: smiling skulls and dancing skeletons invite laughter and acknowledgement of the intimate relationship between death and life.
Grotesque? Yes, but vividly and hilariously so. Each display shows imagination and variety, from rows of skulls in a window to whole skeleton families holding hands.
This is Mexico where all of life is there on the cobbled street in front of you. Hardship and death also seem closer. Students and