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Question for April 2007

Which parts of the Day of the Dead festival go back to the Aztecs?? Asked by Westwood Farm Junior School. Chosen and answered by Our In-House Team

This question, from our good friends at Westwood Farm Junior School near Reading, we thought so good that it prompted us into preparing a whole feature on the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico and its Aztec/pre-Hispanic background. Follow the links below. Part 2 is specifically about the Aztecs, death and the afterlife.

Picture 1: According to Aztec beliefs, children who died as infants went to a special 'heaven' near Tlalocan (the paradise of the rain gods), called Chichihuacuauhco, where a sacred tree dripped milk from its branches to feed them. There they were in a kind of 'limbo', waiting for the present world to be destroyed, after which they would be reincarnated as the new human beings... ('The Skeleton at the Feast', Sayer & Carmichael, 1991). Learn more about the different Aztec 'heavens' by reading the full article...

Picture 2: Though the beautiful clay 'trees of life' made today in places such as Metepec have their (post-Conquest) origin in the Middle East, trees as sacred symbols have pre-Hispanic roots - from the Maya Popul Vuh story to Aztec tribute trees and the suckling tree above.

The Day of the Dead, Part 1The Day of the Dead, Part 2

Our In-House Team has answered 25 questions altogether.

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