Death Takes a Holiday

A decade ago, Halloween seemed poised to muscle in on that most Mexican of holidays, el Dia de los Muertos.

Batman costumes flooded south on a tide of free trade, and Halloween became one more heavily marketed export, like McDonald’s. But the Day of the Dead proved to be as enduring as its devotees had hoped. It is thriving, in fact, on this side of the border.

Based on ancient Aztec beliefs later fused with Catholic rituals, el Dia de los Muertos blends the mystical with the mischievous. It both honors and laughs at death, but most of all treats it as an everyday part of life, not something to be feared or hidden. Friends exchange skulls molded of sugar and tagged with the recipient’s name, mocking death’s inevitability. Families build altars to departed loved ones, strew marigolds, light candles and keep vigils at cemeteries.

Here, of course, the Day of the Dead hasn’t come close to replacing Halloween, the $3-billion spending extravaganza that is beginning to rival Christmas. But sugar skulls have become staples of classrooms and galleries from Santa Ana to Pasadena. Is there a holiday this country needs more? We who avoid open talk about death and spend millions to keep dying parents on life support?

Tonight the granddaddy of Dia de los Muertos celebrations will be held at Self Help Graphics, the East Los Angeles arts center that launched the holiday’s L.A. revival 31 years ago. A parade of painted skeletons will teach the 3,000 revelers who are expected what we on this side of the border have been slow to learn: Loss is part of life. An especially apt lesson, this being election day.