Day of the Dead: Mexico City Cathedral exposes its offerings, crypt and relics to the public

As part of the celebration of the day of the faithful departed – popularly known in Mexico as “Day of the Dead” –, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City has prepared an agenda of activities that include the exhibition of its offerings for the dead, the Chapel of Relics and the Crypt of Archbishops.

With the motto of “A tribute to the deceased,” the activities are scheduled to begin this Monday, October 27, and will extend until November 7, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The cost of access to the capital’s cathedral will be 120 pesos (around 6.5 dollars) per person.

In addition, Masses are scheduled on November 1 and 2 to commemorate deceased loved ones.

In statements to ACI Prensa, Father Eduardo Mercado Guzmán, canon of the Metropolitan Cathedral, highlighted that it is a journey “of remembrance and faith” through “the richness that the Cathedral has.”

The priest highlighted that in the Crypt of the Archbishops is the tomb of Fray Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico and who contemplated the miraculous appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the tilma of San Juan Diego.

“Going to the crypts is remembering the history of Christianity in Mexico,” Father Mercado highlighted.

“Take care of confusion” on the Day of the Dead

The Mexican priest also warned about the confusion that may arise around the celebration of the day of the faithful departed or Day of the Dead, such as mixing it with Halloween or incorporating elements “that have to do with pre-Hispanic divinities.”

The canon of the Cathedral of Mexico City recalled that there are a series of pre-Hispanic customs, especially from Mesoamerica, that have reached the celebration of the Day of the Dead and that are expressed in the offering. However, he highlighted, there was “inculturation work that the first missionaries did, especially the Franciscans and Dominicans, when they came here to America to evangelize.”

“They encountered these types of practices,” he noted, and “what they did is Christianize.”

Among the confusions that can arise, he said, is considering the offering or altar of the dead as a version of the tzompantlian altar from the Mexica culture, also known as Aztec, that exhibited skulls obtained through human sacrifice.

The priest lamented that some of these confusions may be the result of a series of policies that have attempted to “recover all this pre-Hispanic tradition,” leading to a loss of “the true Mexican identity.”

“We are no longer Mexica, we are not Aztec, but we are a mestizo and also uncultured people, where two cultures participate, two great cultures, which Christianity comes in some way to purify.”

Important and Christian elements for the offering or altar of the dead

After emphasizing that the offering of the dead “cannot include elements that have to do with what was called the tzompantli, or that have to do with elements of cults of pre-Hispanic divinities,” Father Mercado stressed that the altar must be “obviously presided over by the cross.”

Then he referred to the role of candles on the altar of the dead, “because for us light is very important.”

“To commemorate the faithful deceased is to pray for them so that they find the path of light and can reach the presence of God,” he stressed.

“Images or paintings, photographs of the people we want to remember these days” also play a valuable role in the offering, both to “ask for our deceased” and to “feel their closeness.”

The foods that are placed, and which are frequently those that “the deceased whom we want to remember liked the most”, also help with this purpose of “keeping them present”.

Cempasúchil flowers, something “precisely in season,” are popular in offerings, the priest noted, as are candy skulls, “which is a tradition.”