As the first official event in our research, a day committed entirely to death seemed like a good place to start.

Day of the Dead dates back nearly 3,000 years to the ancient traditions of pre-Columbian culture but it is predominantly celebrated in central and south Mexico.  November 1 and 2 are entirely dedicated to honouring the dead through a festival of celebration. Respectively, November 1st is for celebrating dead infants or children and November 2 is for celebrating adults who have died. Although it’s definitely counter-cultural for Canadians to celebrate the dead, it’s declared a public holiday in Mexico as people take to the streets with noisemakers and music to wake the dead from their slumber. The dead are considered a part of the community, and must be woken to celebrate alongside the living.

So why on earth are we celebrating the Day of the Dead in Canada? We were lucky enough to find a local celebration of the Day of the Dead at the HarbourFront centre in Toronto, and find out why.

I’ve travelled to Mexico a few times and vividly remember the tourist shops overflowing with beautiful painted skulls, one of which sits on my desk at home. These elaborate skulls, or calaveras, help to remind people that despite the beauty and aesthetics of things in the material world, eventually we will all be as exposed as a skull. I wandered the booths admiring the extensive shrines to the dead. Ofrendas or private altars have three different levels, the lowest representing mortal life, the middle representing purgatory and the highest level is considered heaven or the glory. On Day of the Dead, you’re encouraged bring the person’s favorite indulgences from the physical world and place it at the altar. From bottles of beer to pieces of fruit, I couldn’t help but smile at the lightheartedness of everyone around me.

Every person we interviewed seemed to be smiling and beaming– about death. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to live in a culture were death is considered something to look forward to. Through the lens of Mexican culture it is believed that the dead are insulted with mourning and sadness. Death instead is celebrated as a part of the human experience, because every living thing will eventually die. It’s both fascinating and unusual to encounter this type of acceptance of death in North America, mostly because we live in a death-denying culture where death isn’t discussed, let alone celebrated.