Today is the last of the Day of the Dead celebrations
and probably the most significant. Today
is All Souls’ Day on the Christian calendar and it is the day to visit the
graves of those whom you love who have died. Some of our neighbors, for instance, are going to Tlalchi so that Doña V. can visit her mother’s grave. Since the 28th of October,
we’ve been surrounded by celebration and cooking and making altars. Neighbors
have brought us tamales and yesterday we visited friends in Xico who gave us
tamales to bring home after we stuffed ourselves on them at their houses. Our fridge overfloweth with tamales. I might try to freeze a couple to bring back
to the US for Thanksgiving.
I made a pile of all the ones we have left on our dining table for a photo:
Everyone has her own recipe. Tere steams hers in banana leaves and uses a light touch of polvo de aguacate in her bean tamales -- powder made from avocado leaves. Doña G in Xico uses more of the polvo and steams all her tamales in corn husks. We had bean and meat (separately) in tamales at her house yesterday and she gave us a bunch to take home. Then we went to visit Doña J and Don A. Doña J makes her tamales a bit differently. She is originally from the state of Guerrero and lived many years (over thirty) in Mexico City where she learned to beat the masa and manteca (lard) with a beater and without melting the lard, so the masa part of her tamales is fluffier, more like biscuits. She cooks her meat tamales with mole. She also gave us two kinds of sweet tamales, one with pineapple and one with coconut and then sent us home with a bunch. Last night when we got home, Blanca came over with more meat tamales from her mom. Haven't tried them, but Doña V is another excellent cook. I have qualms about my appointment in two weeks to check my cholesterol. It is very hard to stop eating tamales.
Doña G in Xico is very much a
faithful Catholic. She really cannot
understand people not having faith. It
has comforted her over all her years and tragedies and hard times. She told us about a nephew who lived in the
city who had grown to scorn the idea that the dead came to visit on El Día de Muertos.
In a recent year he came home to visit at the time of the holiday and he ended
up participating in them: making the altar, loading it with ofrendas, joining
in all the visiting and finally preparing the graves of the dead in his family
and spending the day at the panteón with them on November 2. Our friend said he decided the dead did come
to visit.
This isn’t so strange, you know. As far as I know, people don’t believe the
dead come in corporal form, but rather as their essences. They don’t eat the tamales, but enjoy the
odors and the warmth of the food and the love of their families. And the families enjoy the warmth of the
memories of their relatives and the warmth from their essences which
intermingle with their own.
It really feels as if that’s what happens. It
is a time of memories coming alive.
Jim put a picture of his parents and another
of his mother on our altar and I put one of my grandparents. And memories and affection poured forth.
As our friends say, it is not a time of
sadness, but of memory. Bittersweet,
perhaps, but definitely sweet.
Here is a picture of our altar, a little droopy after four days. The saucepan in front contained incense.
Home altars can be very extravagant. Doña G's is absolutely beautiful, and I wish I had a picture. It was lush with flowers and greens and fruit, all artfully arranged. There are streets in Xico overflowing with flowers of all kinds, sold not only for the altars but for the graves where you don't have to be confined to the marigolds and patas de leones.