Day of the Dead & Ofrenda’s

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How does the Say of the Dead and Ofrenda’s tie into the catholic faith?
 
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I meet a devout catholic mom and she was married to a man from Mexico. She asked me if I knew anything about this catholic tradition. I couldn’t help her.

Then Disney came out with a series, Elana Of Avalor, and had an episode of the “Day of the Dead”. This is vastly different than how I honor “All Souls Day”. Following this, Disney came out with “Coco” and my kids are now obsessed with creating an Ofrendo for our family lineage. I’m all for honoring the dead in our family, but I don’t wanna invite evil spirits either. I just don’t know many Mexican Catholics to get a better clue on this. I tried “New Advent” for guidance, but it didn’t have much. Thanks for any guidance.
 
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The only issue with Day of the Dead and Ofrendas is that in some cases people are using ofrendas to call up the spirit of the dead person to basically come back and visit with you. In Catholicism, we do not ever call up the dead like that, because the odds are good we would call up some demon instead of the person we’re trying to reach.

So if you want to make an ofrenda just to honor the dead person, and have memories of them, fine. If on the other hand you’re making it to get Grandpa to come back and drink tequila with you all, don’t do that.
 
The theology of “Coco” is a bit goofy. But then again, Disney’s gone a bit off the rails in recent years, so…

If your kiddos want to offer anything to the dead members of your family tree, make it Masses and prayers (and yes, I know we aren’t offering Masses to, but Masses for)
 
Coco’s theology is kind of sad since everyone is going to die again when a meteor wipes out the Earth or something.
Edited: I meant that humans will eventually become extinct, probably from a cosmic event. It might take a long time, but it is inevitable, at least in that universe.
 
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I don’t remember that part.
I just remember that they believed that your ghost vanished forever when people forgot about you 😳
 
If everyone dies than who is left to remember anyone?
What I mean by the last post was that the destruction of human life on Earth is sort of inevitable.
 
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Oh…😏

The theology of the movie is still goofy, though 🙂
 
Yeah, I would definitely tell my kids that it’s an entirely made-up story.
The dead don’t come and visit with us in the way shown in that movie. Requests or messages for the dead need to go through God and God only.
 
I don’t think so either. Especially since the whole premise is the kid travels to the land of the dead to find his real ancestor. Complete fantasy. It’s more like some kind of “Orpheus the Musician goes to Hell” story grafted onto the Day of the Dead motif.

The whole idea that our eternal life and not “vanishing” depends on whether people on earth remember us is secular baloney of the worst sort. I’m always hearing agnostics and atheists say, “I don’t believe in an afterlife but I believe we live on through the memories and impression we made on other people during our time on earth.” That’s about on the same level with “Jesus didn’t multiply the loaves and fishes, everybody just brought lunch and were inspired by Jesus to share with their neighbor.” Bunk.
 
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Found this, but reading the whole link (including Wikipedia) I’m more confused! 🤔

Day of the Dead - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online

The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday which has spread to other countries. The holiday is split between two days, November 1 and 2, with the first devoted to children and the second to adults.
www.catholic.org www.catholic.org
 
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Actually, the Day Of The Dead begins on October 31 and ends Nov 2 with a few differences between it and the Catholic days of All Saints and All Souls.
 
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Coco’s theology is wacky, but it’s a cute movie. And the idea of remembering our ancestors and praying for their souls is a nice idea. Let’s just do away with the notion of them crossing over to visit.
 
Found this too:
Many non-Hispanics conflate Dia de los Muertos with Halloween. But Halloween once was a dark holiday, steeped in Celtic myths of demons who terrorized the living on one night of the year. Many historians believe that the practice of “trick or treat” grows out of the Celtic practice of trying to appease the wakened dead with offerings of food. The Day of the Dead, on the other hand, grows from the spiritual beliefs of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, who thought of death as part of the cycle of life and welcomed the deceased back for an annual celebration with the loved ones left behind.

The Catholic Church, through the aegis of Spanish conquerors and ensuing missionaries, moved the holiday (originally celebrated in the summer) to coincide with All Saint’s Day (November 1, called Dia de los Angelitos , and dedicated to children — “little angels” — who have died) and All Soul’s Day (November 2, for the adult dead). Today the celebration represents a merging of pre-Colombian and Catholic beliefs. Mass, prayer vigils, and religious iconography have been incorporated into the festivities, and even in the United States, many Catholic churches with large Mexican and Mexican-American congregations — such as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in San Jose — host Day of the Dead observances.
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So, my new question about the tradition of Catholics and visiting spirits … Does the Catholic Church teach that spirits of the dead visit us? (Ghosts, demon’s, family members, ect?)
 
Giggly_Giraffe said:
So, my new question about the tradition of Catholics and visiting spirits … Does the Catholic Church teach that spirits of the dead visit us? (Ghosts, demon’s, family members, ect?)
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No. That is not part of Church teaching. There are a few cases of saints in heaven appearing to others, but these are not the norm or expectation and there’s no teaching about the dead visiting or ghosts. The Church forbids attempts to try to summon the dead. It encourages us to pray for the souls of the dead.
 
God who can do all things could let a deceased loved one visit us, but it is up to God. It is very wrong for us to try to get the deceased to contact us or visit us. For example we should not ever try to call up the dead, use a medium or a Ouija board etc. This could open up a portal to the demonic.

There have been plenty of private revelations where someone saw, heard or somehow felt the presence of a deceased loved one. I think many if not most of us pray after a loved one dies that we could somehow know from God that the person is all right. We also pray for the soul of the deceased of course. At Fatima the children asked about souls of deceased people they knew. People also asked Padre Pio about their loved ones as he reportedly had the gift of knowing when a soul was saved or went to Heaven. On his deathbed he reportedly saw his long-deceased mother. But private revelations aren’t part of the deposit of faith so one is not required to believe them.
 
I think it is a mistake to rely on Disney as a source for what the Catholic Church believes about anything.
With respect to the Day of the Dead, it is a universal feast in the Catholic Church. The Church offers us an indulgence for visiting the church and also for visiting the cemetery and praying for the repose of the dead.
I remember hearing about how people in New Orleans used to go out to the cemeteries and visit. I remember hearing how it had degenerated into a picnic in the cemetery. Also Fr Cziszek wrote that they also did this in Novosibersk when he was in Siberia.
 
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