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Life and Death in Mexico: Ancient and Present

© Dina Ely

When people think of festivals of the dead, the first thing brought to most minds is the colourful celebration of "The Day of the Dead," complete with the images of skeletons performing daily tasks as though unhindered by physical death.

Mexico’s history of death customs and celebrations ranges from the brutal to the lighthearted. From the frightening practices of the Olmec and the Maya, to the current festivities of the annual "Day of the Dead," let’s chip off the tip of the iceberg of Mexican death rites & celebrations.

The earliest Mexicans left evidence of their deeply spiritual beliefs regarding life and death. Gravesites containing idols of females with wide hips demonstrate their belief in the "birthing power" and the reverent adoration of the earth. In some cultures, shamans told the primitive peoples of a spiritual plane that lay beyond human perception; a world from which souls enter the world in birth, and to which souls return in death. In this respect, the crust of the Earth was a divider between the world of spirit, and the world of body. That is, between the afterlife and life.

The melding of life and death in these cultures has become clear; shamans taught that the same life force that fed the spiritual plane fed the material world. Images like this one to the right, deathly faces with flesh partially exposing the bony skull beneath, show that these early Mexicans embraced death as a part of life, and life as a part of death...an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

The skeleton was, to these people, a symbol of regeneration, of that endless rebirth. This theme is common even in the present day in the "Day of the Dead" celebrations. Whereas in many cultures the skeleton is viewed simply as a somber reminder that human beings must die and eventually turn to dust, to early Mexicans, and to present day, the skeleton is the remains of a being that has returned to the plane of spirits, and who awaits a time to live again. Bones, like seeds, were returned to the earth to allow for creation of new life.

In a twist compared to Eastern regenerative beliefs, the early Mexicans believed that death produced life, since in watching their own crops grow they conceived that the death of vegetation gave way to new plants. Therefore they reasoned that human death came before human life.

Aztec ritual sacrifice was based in mythology, in particular, in myths surrounding the creation of human life through the blood sacrifice of their gods. Thus, the Aztecs sacrificed humans to show their appreciation. With the beliefs that death produces life, and the beliefs that the blood of the gods begot life, one can begin to understand why the earliest Mexicans have a reputation for brutal, gruesome sacrificial rituals.