Culture By Pearl Chen

The heartwarming animation Coco won international acclaim a few years ago. The beautiful tale of self-discovery and family love, tangled in exciting adventure and heart-wrenching memories, captures the essence of the Mexican holiday Día De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead). Not only did it introduce this festival to a worldwide audience, it redefined the festival, turning what people considered an eerie tradition into a delightful celebration. Día De Los Muertos traces back to the rituals in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The Aztecs, most notably, saw death as an ever-present part of life and believed that the dead travel to Chicunamictlán–the Land of the Dead. Now celebrated throughout Latin America as a dedication to the deceased, the two-day holiday is a reunion of the living and the dead that serves to “remember loved ones by sharing a meal with them as one would when they were alive.” According to tradition, the gates of heaven open at midnight for the spirits to rejoin their families for 24 hours. Along with many offerings, families decorate their altars with flowers, photos, and food to attract the departed souls and encourage visits from the Land of the Dead. Instead of mourning, the festival provides a cheerful atmosphere for a “reunion” between Mexicans and their long-lost family members. It is a joyous, beautiful way of paying tribute to loved ones, a tradition that honors family and ancestry and celebrates love and remembrance. Many cultures around the world can resonate with such family-honoring festivals. My culture, for example, celebrates Qingming Jie (Tomb Sweeping Day). The legend has it that during the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong was angry at his subjects for spending all their time praying and planning memorial rituals. For them to return to their duties, he limited them to only one day of worship. The day became known as Tomb Sweeping Day, a rare chance for relatives to come together to remember those who have passed away. On this day, we return to our ancestral tombs to tidy their graves. Aside from tomb sweeping, we pray (bai bai), light incense, burn paper offerings, and leave flowers or food to help our departed family members attain comfort and contentment in the afterlife. In addition to being a tradition that pays tribute to those that have passed, Tomb Sweeping Day is also a celebration of springtime, life, and beauty. Families gather for outdoor activities like picnics, long walks, and kite flying (we cut the string when the kite is high in the sky as a symbol of good luck). Like the Mexican Día De Los Muertos, we honor our ancestors with an annual celebration. Regardless of the differences in the approaches to remembering deceased relatives, both traditions express utmost gratitude, respect, and blessing. In this way tragedy and death, the universal experience that binds us all together, transforms into a celebratory family reunion that bridges one generation to the next. Día De Los Muertos and Tomb Sweeping Day may be exemplified by what Miguel said in Coco, “We may have our differences, but nothing’s more important than family.” Festivals like these provide us with the opportunity to dive into what cultures around the world hold dear, to glimpse into a nuanced, complex community, and to uncover stories that have carried through decades and generations.