Day of the Dead Isn't Aztec

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In today’s Ask an Apologist, the questioner mentioned that she decided to become Orthodox rather than Catholic because she was scandalized by a Day of the Dead altar set up in front of the local Catholic cathedral, because she thought it was mixing too much Aztec religion into Christianity.

One problem.

The typical Day of the Dead/All Souls’ Day customs (picnicking at the graveside, putting out food and drink as well as flowers and candles, skeleton decorations) are all European Christian, and had already been around for a long time before they ever got to Mexico. In Eastern Europe, Germany, and Spain, people do much the same thing, and the only reason we don’t remember this is that US Catholics have largely stopped doing the same thing. (My mother still clearly remembers German Catholics in our town leaving All Souls’ pretzels looped over cemetery gravestone crosses or on top of flat gravestones, for example. But you don’t see that now, except maybe some Polish stuff that’s similar.)

Second problem:

Many of the Orthodox have extremely similar grave-visiting customs, but they tend to do them in Easter Week (aka Bright Week) or the week after. So there’s a lot of bringing Easter eggs to the dead, giving out candy, and singing songs. Russian Orthodox have the Radonitsa festival on the Second Tuesday after Easter, so that people aren’t fasting from eggs.

So if you think Orthodoxy won’t include a big Day of the Dead ceremony, obviously your local Orthodox must also have gotten lazy about going out to the graveyard to sing litanies and chow down at the graves… or they’re saving it for a surprise. 🙂

For some reason, Hispanic customs tend to freak US people out, and of course there are plenty of false facts being passed around. Just like every Irish custom is supposed to be pagan until you actually do the research, there are plenty of people pushing weird neopagan and Native American pagan interpretations of stuff that has always been Christian. Don’t believe the first thing you see on the Internet. And let’s not be ashamed of the ordinary faith customs of ordinary Christians around the world. It’s wrong to call good evil and evil good, and it’s an insult to the Holy Spirit. There are plenty of things that really are bad out there. Let’s discern a little.
 
Mintaka said:
In today’s Ask an Apologist, the questioner mentioned that she decided to become Orthodox rather than Catholic because she was scandalized by a Day of the Dead altar set up in front of the local Catholic cathedral, because she thought it was mixing too much Aztec religion into Christianity.

One problem.

The typical Day of the Dead/All Souls’ Day customs (picnicking at the graveside, putting out food and drink as well as flowers and candles, skeleton decorations) are all European Christian, and had already been around for a long time before they ever got to Mexico. In Eastern Europe, Germany, and Spain, people do much the same thing, and the only reason we don’t remember this is that US Catholics have largely stopped doing the same thing. (My mother still clearly remembers German Catholics in our town leaving All Souls’ pretzels looped over cemetery gravestone crosses or on top of flat gravestones, for example. But you don’t see that now, except maybe some Polish stuff that’s similar.)

Second problem:

Many of the Orthodox have extremely similar grave-visiting customs, but they tend to do them in Easter Week (aka Bright Week) or the week after. So there’s a lot of bringing Easter eggs to the dead, giving out candy, and singing songs. Russian Orthodox have the Radonitsa festival on the Second Tuesday after Easter, so that people aren’t fasting from eggs.

So if you think Orthodoxy won’t include a big Day of the Dead ceremony, obviously your local Orthodox must also have gotten lazy about going out to the graveyard to sing litanies and chow down at the graves… or they’re saving it for a surprise. 🙂

For some reason, Hispanic customs tend to freak US people out, and of course there are plenty of false facts being passed around. Just like every Irish custom is supposed to be pagan until you actually do the research, there are plenty of people pushing weird neopagan and Native American pagan interpretations of stuff that has always been Christian. Don’t believe the first thing you see on the Internet. And let’s not be ashamed of the ordinary faith customs of ordinary Christians around the world. It’s wrong to call good evil and evil good, and it’s an insult to the Holy Spirit. There are plenty of things that really are bad out there. Let’s discern a little.
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you’re right,

seems kind of weird since we don’t do that here

just curious though, what’s the significance of bringing food to graves?

I get flowers and candles but pretzels?
 
Look up the history of pretzels and you’ll understand.
Quick Overview:
Monks were the ones to invent pretzels when they were trying to inspire young people to pray and created a bread based treat that looked like someone bringing their hands together in an attitude of prayer.
I mangled the description but that’s the gist of it 🙂
 
angell1 said:
you’re right,

seems kind of weird since we don’t do that here

just curious though, what’s the significance of bringing food to graves?

I get flowers and candles but pretzels?
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I can’t speak to the East European aspects of this; but in the Mexican version, the belief is that death is only a phase in a life that goes on, that the dead continue being and, on 11/1, visit the naturally living…and, while so doing, require sustenance. Hence the food offerings.

I for one don’t understand why the dead would hang around their former bodies if they were coming to visit the living, but in the original DOTD, families would put things like candy skulls etc., in their windows, as well.

This isn’t even practiced all over Mexico, just in the lower half. And it’s starting to fade even there.

ICXC NIKA.
 
Most countries that practice visiting the Christian dead also bring food along.

The dead bodies in a cemetery can’t see or smell flowers, and the souls of our beloved dead have better flowers in Heaven (or are kinda busy in Purgatory). But we don’t see flower offerings as “weird” or “pagan” because we’re used to it. Likewise, the dead aren’t going to use candles for light; but burning candles are symbolic of our prayers and love. Same thing with food and flowers.

Also, if you bring food and drink along for a picnic for the relatives, it’s kinda rude not to put anything out for the dead. Obviously they’re not going to eat it, but it’s a symbol of the Communion of the Saints. They’re still part of the family, so they often get servings of the same food everybody else is eating. It’s a sort of serious play, like a doll’s tea party, and kids often drive this sort of custom.

But it was extremely common for the early Christians to have agape meals at their family tombs or the tombs of martyrs, just as there were Masses said at martyrs’ tombs. (Yet another reason why pagans thought Christians were weird and morbid, and one of the ways Christians often got captured.) Christians don’t seem to have left food in the catacombs, but that was probably a worry about city vermin. Countryside graves got treated in a little more freeform way.

The one thing Roman pagans did do, and that Christians were forbidden to do, was that pagans had little tubes built into graves so you could pour wine or blood sacrifices into the grave to feed the dead. Romans were sometimes scared of the dead and thought they’d come after you if you didn’t keep them appeased with blood. Christians didn’t think that way at all.

(Btw, apparently birds and wild animals benefit a lot from All Souls’ Day food in cemeteries in Europe, especially since it’s right before winter starts and the animals need to fatten up.)
 
I think some of the worry is fear and misunderstanding of the practices of another culture.

Some Protestants see pagan practices in rituals of the Catholic church, because they don’t understand them in the context of Catholic theology.

Some Catholics see pagan practices in traditions of Catholicism in cultures other than their own…because they don’t understand the context. Things seem weird, and people start to worry about the slippery slope etc.

Some pagans see pagan practices in rituals and traditions within the Catholic church, because they have similar practices in their own faith, which may or may not be theologically analogous.

Some of the worry is also due to our personal tendencies and limitations. What is food for one is poison for another. There are some people (raises hand) that get easily confused or caught up in aspects of ritual and tradition in such a manner than it takes them down the wrong trap. The limitation is within ourselves, and does not mean the ritual or tradition is evil or wrong.
 
Mintaka said:
In today’s Ask an Apologist, the questioner mentioned that she decided to become Orthodox rather than Catholic because she was scandalized by a Day of the Dead altar set up in front of the local Catholic cathedral, because she thought it was mixing too much Aztec religion into Christianity.

One problem.

The typical Day of the Dead/All Souls’ Day customs (picnicking at the graveside, putting out food and drink as well as flowers and candles, skeleton decorations) are all European Christian, and had already been around for a long time before they ever got to Mexico. In Eastern Europe, Germany, and Spain, people do much the same thing, and the only reason we don’t remember this is that US Catholics have largely stopped doing the same thing. (My mother still clearly remembers German Catholics in our town leaving All Souls’ pretzels looped over cemetery gravestone crosses or on top of flat gravestones, for example. But you don’t see that now, except maybe some Polish stuff that’s similar.)

Second problem:

Many of the Orthodox have extremely similar grave-visiting customs, but they tend to do them in Easter Week (aka Bright Week) or the week after. So there’s a lot of bringing Easter eggs to the dead, giving out candy, and singing songs. Russian Orthodox have the Radonitsa festival on the Second Tuesday after Easter, so that people aren’t fasting from eggs.

So if you think Orthodoxy won’t include a big Day of the Dead ceremony, obviously your local Orthodox must also have gotten lazy about going out to the graveyard to sing litanies and chow down at the graves… or they’re saving it for a surprise. 🙂

For some reason, Hispanic customs tend to freak US people out, and of course there are plenty of false facts being passed around. Just like every Irish custom is supposed to be pagan until you actually do the research, there are plenty of people pushing weird neopagan and Native American pagan interpretations of stuff that has always been Christian. Don’t believe the first thing you see on the Internet. And let’s not be ashamed of the ordinary faith customs of ordinary Christians around the world. It’s wrong to call good evil and evil good, and it’s an insult to the Holy Spirit. There are plenty of things that really are bad out there. Let’s discern a little.
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i agree, its kind of like a slander to the holy spirit, its what they did to jesus when he was called beelzebul in the gospel of mark 3:20-30
 
Interesting. I did not know those were European customs as well.
 
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