Abstract

The video is the result of an investigation into the effects, adaptations and displacements experienced by the Day of the Dead tradition in Mexico during the month of November of the first year of the covid-19 pandemic. By this time, public Day of the Dead ceremonies valued as intangible national heritage had been cancelled. We undertook an online survey to find out what would be the effects of isolation on the Day of the Dead tradition: would the tradition cease or would it shift or mutate to new uses, places and expressions? And what new creative uses of the tradition would emerge and in what new media would it be carried out? With the data obtained from 720 questionnaires and 280 photographs received from the altars of the dead, we made a video to explain the spatial displacements, the aesthetic changes and the new senses with which the practice of this ancestral Mexican tradition was renewed.

Keywords: altar of the dead, covid-19, Mexico, heritage, ritual

altars for the dead: the changing heritage of a mexican tradition

The video is the result of an investigation into the effects, adaptations and displacements experienced by the Day of the Dead tradition in Mexico during the month of November of the first year of the covid-19 pandemic. By this time, public Day of the Dead ceremonies valued as intangible national heritage had been cancelled. We undertook an online survey to find out what would be the effects of isolation on the Day of the Dead tradition: would the tradition cease or would it shift or mutate to new uses, places and expressions? And what new creative uses of the tradition would emerge and in what new media would it be carried out? With the data obtained from 720 questionnaires and 280 photographs received from the altars of the dead, we made a video to explain the spatial displacements, the aesthetic changes and the new senses with which the practice of this ancestral Mexican tradition was renewed.

Keywords: Ritual, altars for the dead, heritage, Mexico, covid-19.

Day of the Dead: Mexico's intangible heritage for the world

For locals and foreigners alike, one of the peculiarities of Mexican culture is its way of celebrating the dead. Without entering the debate on the primacy of the Mesoamerican root or the Catholic tradition, we recognize that the festivity is a syncretic cultural heritage (Broda, 2003: 114) that combines the pre-Hispanic worldview (Broda, 1991) with the Catholic tradition of the Day of the Dead (Malvido, 2006). These two traditions merged and to this day are celebrated throughout Mexico on November 1 and 2, and both cosmological meanings survive.

The celebration of the Day of the Dead was born as a ritual that builds bridges between the underworld (Mesoamerican) and the idea of purgatory (Catholic) and the world of the living. In 41 ethnic groups in Mexico, the tradition is preserved and celebrated with great intensity, linked to the agrarian cycle and as an integrating element of the community, maintaining the continuity of the oral tradition through family inheritance.

Currently, this tradition

is no longer just an ancient custom in the villages and a cultural practice of the Mexicans, but a ritual with value and validity in the eyes of cultures around the world. These new developments lead us to reinterpret this ritual, to try to understand what are the meanings, in the polysemy of values that, like any ritual, it contains, which today make the participation of individuals and groups in this great cultural manifestation even more valid (Arizpe, 2009: 66).

Arizpe argues that consumerism and globalization have had an impact on the breaking of ties between rituals and institutions, between traditions and cultures. But at the same time he asks why certain social rituals are being reborn in today's world. Our research aims to find answers to these displacements that are sensitive to another axis of transformation: that of a global pandemic.

In more recent times, the altars of the dead emancipated themselves from the rural festivities of the Day of the Dead and, as defined by Claudio Lomnitz (2006), became "a cornerstone of national identity". The festivity has acquired new meanings and its rituality has been transformed as it has adapted to new contexts such as the urban and transnational ones; it has taken on new meanings, such as its folklorization as symbols of patriotic sentiment in schools and public offices, its commercialization and publicity linked to the marketing of different brands and products; its spectacularization in parades, movies and media productions (Lomnitz, 2006). The best example is the recent invention of the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City, influenced by a James Bond movie that has spread its spectacularization not only in the capital but in every town. This new stylization hollywodense has caused the practice to spread to new urban and even international settings. In short, it is a practice that has undergone many transformations and adaptations and therefore it was reasonable to think about the impact of the pandemic on new adaptations.

Tradition has changed, but it has not died. Altars have amplified their meanings, but they have not been emptied of meaning. For example, in urban homes, offerings to the dead are set up and are practiced with a cosmological sense related to the experience with the souls and the link with the supernatural (Semán, 2020); candles are lit to illuminate the path of the dead, colorful papel picado is decorated, arches of cempasúchil flowers are placed as a gateway to this world, and food and drink are offered to entertain the deceased, whether to follow the animist sense of the tradition of attracting the deceased to coexist in this material plane with living loved ones, or just to continue the custom of remembering those who have departed. 

The fact is that the altars of the dead are now a tradition appropriated by many Mexicans regardless of age or ethnic or social condition, as well as a ritual admired by the whole world for its intense color, for the extravagance of the catrinas and skulls, or as a decorative element. It has even been valued as one of the oldest and best preserved cultural heritages, and for that reason it was recognized by the unesco as intangible heritage of humanity in 2008.1

Undoubtedly the seal unesco brought new impacts because "suddenly, it is no longer just an ancient custom in the villages, and a cultural practice of Mexicans, but a ritual with value and validity in the eyes of the culture of the whole world" (Arizpe 2009: 66). But at the same time that it became globalized, it became more valued by Mexicans, and was recognized as the heritage of all Mexicans, although, as we will see below, this does not mean that all Mexicans practice it, nor that they do it in the same way. 

Research notes

The research was conducted during the juncture of the global pandemic, so it was necessary to generate an online research instrument that would be adapted to the conditions of confinement and closure of public spaces resulting from health measures to minimize the effects of the pandemic by the end of 2020.2 This year corresponded to the peak of its effects: public and collective celebrations of the Day of the Dead had been cancelled, cemeteries were closed, schools and public and commercial plazas were closed. There was a strict policy of home confinement. Simultaneously, the pandemic was already claiming victims. The sick died under isolation measures and death left, in addition to the pain of the absence of loved ones, deep emotional wounds due to loneliness.

Given this situation, we wonder what would be the effects of this culture of isolation on the Day of the Dead tradition, the most valued as Mexico's intangible heritage. Would the tradition cease, shift or mutate towards new uses, places and expressions? And if the latter, what would be the displacements, in what new media would it be carried out? And what new creative uses of the tradition would emerge?

We hypothesized that confinement would privatize the festivity and its public and social meaning towards the domestic and family assembly of altars of the dead, which would also find a new window of sociability in contemporary socio-digital networks. We even wanted to see if people who had never been accustomed to this practice would resort to it.

The research arises as a circumstantial intervention that takes priority within the research trajectories that the two authors had been following. On the one hand, we had both studied the impacts of transculturation originated by the intensity of cultural flows and exchanges propitiated by the dynamics of globalization in different syncretic rituals valued as long-standing Mexican heritages, such as the conchera dances (De la Torre and Gutiérrez Zúñiga, 2017), the temazcal bath (De la Torre and Gutiérrez Zúñiga, 2016) and the rituals in the archaeological zones of Mexico (De la Torre and Gutiérrez Zúñiga, 2021). On the other hand, it was also of our interest to address the effects of the pandemic on displacements and reconfigurations in the ways of experiencing the religious (De la Torre and Gutiérrez Zúñiga, 2020) and the feast of the dead gave us an opportunity to continue finding answers.3 Finally, the topic was also articulated with individual agendas. De la Torre was conducting research on domestic altars and lived religiosity (De la Torre and Salas, 2020), while Gutiérrez Zúñiga was engaged in a study on religious diversity in schools, in whose reality the celebration of the dead was a tradition that generated tension with religious minorities increasingly present in society (Gutiérrez Zúñiga, 2021).

Due to health restrictions, it was impossible to do face-to-face fieldwork, so we designed an online survey to collect data on the meanings of the practice of altars during the 2020 festivities. This survey was disseminated according to a "snowball" strategy via email and on our social networks for ten days around the date, and we obtained 720 valid questionnaires.4 The questionnaire included three sections: general data of the respondents (unnamed); the practice of altars; and a section dedicated to teachers in the schools. We combined open-ended, closed-ended and multiple-choice question options, according to the needs of our analysis. We also decided to request photographs of the altars in order to study their material, aesthetic and symbolic transformations, and with the 280 images received we were able to form a photographic archive that allowed us to observe a very wide range of types of altars, with which we set ourselves the task of constructing typologies according to their components, according to the places where they are placed, according to their aesthetics valued as materialities that imprint contrasting senses and generate different sensations (Meyer, 2019).

Another alternative material was to capture and subsequently systematize content disseminated on socio-digital networks (mainly Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp). Technologies offer a new support for socialization in which a new trend towards the virtualization of the altar emerges. We discovered that during the pandemic it became a tradition to upload photographs of personal altars of the dead to share them with friends and family. These publications are often accompanied by legends, explanations, messages, so it was very rich as study material on the renewal of forms and the value that is imprinted on the installation of altars of the dead mediated by digital platforms.

Although at the beginning it was thought that the survey would provide the central raw material for the analysis, the archive of photographs of domestic altars and digital altars obtained turned out to be one of the main working tools during the research, allowing us a visual reading of the strategies of cultural visibility (Martín Barbero and Rey, 2001). The photos provided us with "imaginary landscapes of our time [that have] an effective presence in the everyday life of social subjects" (Bueno Fischer, 2006: 174). We devoted six months of work to cataloguing the images; the participation of Emilia Díaz Corona, research assistant, was very valuable in this task.

Main research results

Who answered the questionnaire?

Our sample consisted of 720 people practicing altars of the dead, mostly belonging to a highly educated urban middle class. If we look at their occupation, we see that teachers (29.7%), students (14.3%) and academics (8.5%) accounted for more than half of the sample, and professionals represented 20.8%. If we look at their schooling, we see that 9 out of 10 have university studies (undergraduate 49.7% and graduate 39%). This sample configuration is to be expected due to the very nature of the online tool chosen, which assumes quality access to the Internet and a device that supports the questionnaire, which in our country imposes a considerable bias if we consider that according to the 2020 census, 44.2% of households in Mexico have a computer and 60.6% have access to the Internet, while 72% of Mexicans aged six years or older are Internet users (inegi, 2020). An important factor was the participation of members of the Network of Researchers of the Religious Phenomenon in Mexico as a key factor in our "snowball" sampling strategy, which allowed the multiplication of starting points for the dissemination of the questionnaire throughout the national territory. We were able to "get out" of the West Central region (with 54.3% of the questionnaires) and even explore its uses abroad (6.1% of the respondents do not live in Mexico). The sample was made up of 80.4% of women; the age groups were varied: 60% were made up of similar proportions of 26 to 35 years old, 36 to 45 years old and 46 to 55 years old, and the 36 to 45 years old group was the largest (24%). However, the proportion of 17- to 25-year-olds was also considerable, with 17.2% of the sample, similar to that of 56- to 65-year-olds with 14% (the remainder were over 65 years of age). We also found considerable diversity of religion among practitioners: 57% declared themselves Catholic, 22.1% consider themselves "unchurched spiritual," and 14% are atheist (the remainder were made up of minimal numbers of other religions).

Even though the profile of the respondents is biased, it does constitute a rich and varied sample to explore the contemporary transformations of this tradition based on its use mainly among the urban middle class, and more particularly among Internet users with high levels of education. It also shows us that it is not only a confessional practice linked to popular Catholicism, but that it has acquired a national cultural heritage value that crosses different religious groups and orientations, including those of atheist conviction.

How was the altar practiced during the pandemic?

Altars are practiced to the extent that they are important for individuals, institutions and groups. Although most of them say they do it "since they were children" (47.5%) -which tells us about their rootedness-, an important proportion does it since the death of a loved one (18.8%) and since "having their own place to live" (10.8%). Some more, since they had children (7.8%). In other words, many people adopt the custom when it acquires a specific meaning within their life cycle. It is clear that the assembly of altars is an important family and school socialization activity: in a non-exclusive manner, family (51.4%) and school (41.7%) were mentioned as the primary places where people learned to assemble altars, but it was also important to seek their learning through watching movies, listening to the radio or through social networks (10.1%). In other words, the reproduction of tradition is not only through institutions, but also through the media.

To the question of to whom the altar is dedicated, the answer was overwhelmingly in favor of family members.

But the dedication to a pet also stands out, which denotes the growing importance of pets in the emotional life of middle-class urban families. Likewise, it is clear how the altar is no longer configured solely by Christian and specifically Catholic beliefs about the soul and purgatory, but by new imaginaries that equate non-human beings as living beings, especially among the youngest.

Graph 1. To whom were the altars dedicated (in percentages). Source: Database of the questionnaire "Altars de muerto 2020", designed by the authors. Elaboration of the graph: Emilia Díaz Corona Centeno. N=720 (non-exclusive answers).

To the question: Why is it important to set up an altar, the following answers were given (non-exclusive answers):

Graph 2. What is the importance of the altars of the dead (in percentages). Source: Database of the online questionnaire "Altares de muerto 2020", designed by the authors. Elaboration of the graph: Emilia Díaz Corona Centeno. N=720 (non-exclusive answers).

We noticed how the first mentions of more than 50% refer to "thanking and remembering loved ones", the maintenance of "the traditions of our ancestors" and because it is "Mexican cultural heritage". Since these were non-exclusive responses (each respondent could mark as many as he/she wished), we were able to observe that these meanings frequently appeared linked: tradition is an available resource of our cultural repertoire to remember our deceased and at the same time it is valued for being part of what identifies us as Mexicans. Only 26% (a little more than a third of the respondents) give it an animistic meaning, stating that its importance lies in the contact with the deceased. The scarce mention of "faith" or "obligation" in the group stands out, which confirms its cultural rather than religious character, the result of a secularization process. This feature could be explored by knowing the material elements with which the altar is mounted.

In the graph we can see that nine out of ten altars were assembled from images of the deceased, food or drink, flowers (cempasúchil or bishop's cord) and candles. We could say that these are the essential elements with which this material assembly in memory of the dead is conjugated; with the exception of the flowers mentioned above, we can observe that these elements can be obtained in practically any context (even abroad), from which each practitioner can dedicate the effort he/she wishes to their construction: from the very elaborate (as we will see later) to those arranged in a casual manner. In second place would be the skulls and papel picado, in practically eight out of ten altars, which places them as elements mostly associated and practically constitutive of the altar and which, unlike the previous ones, are specific to this date and their use supposes their acquisition during the festive season, or their storage. It is common in markets and stationery stores the sale of these elements, and more and more supermarkets also offer them, which evidences their mass production. The elements used in less than half of the altars are also important for our analysis. The objects of the deceased, used in almost half of the altars, are relics that speak to us of the will to make him present, even more so when they are objects of daily use, and it is even compatible with an animist sense of this assembly. Copal, on the other hand, is linked to ritual paraphernalia of pre-Hispanic origin, and its use is almost as extensive as that of the objects of the deceased. The scarcity of virtual assemblage stands out: we only found eight cases in the entire sample, which corresponds to 0.1% of the total, which reveals the importance of materiality in this practice. Religious images of saints, Christs and virgins appeared in just over a third of the altars, confirming both the religious aspect of their Catholic origin and their current secularization. We will go into more detail on these latter data later on.

Elements of the altar (in percentages). Source: Database of the online questionnaire "Altars de muerto 2020", designed by the authors. Elaboration of the graph: Emilia Díaz Corona Centeno. N=720 (non-exclusive answers).

In the altar, different combinations of elements that are simply meaningful to people, beyond some patrimonial canon, are made. In this way, we find quartz, stones, minerals and "Halloween stuff", in principle a tradition of Anglo-American origin that precisely the governmental institutions of culture and the public education system have tried to counteract. (In fact, half of the practitioners of the altar of the dead said they do not have Halloween activities).

We looked deeper into the use of religious elements and found that the most frequent images are: crucifixes and the Virgin of Guadalupe in approximately two out of ten altars; Jesus and various Catholic saints in approximately one out of ten. It is also important to note the use of sacred images outside the Catholic tradition, such as pre-Hispanic deities (2.6%), which may be indicative of a search for indigenous authenticity in this practice (as is the case with others of pre-Hispanic origin, such as the temazcal or the Conchero-Aztec dance). In some cases we find oriental deities or representations and the holy death, which speaks of the great plasticity of this tradition. Something worth mentioning is that 137 people said they had not put a "religious image" in the general list of altar elements, but when asked the specific question "Do you have images of saints, supernatural beings or deities on your altar?", it turned out that they had used crucifixes, Guadalupe Virgins, images of the Child Jesus, Catholic saints. It makes us think that they consider them sacred, but not religious, an interesting distinction in light of the growing number of people who consider themselves spiritual, but not members of a specific church or religious tradition (Encreer/Rifrem, 2016).

Once set up, the altar is practiced in various ways: "taking care of it (cleaning it, lighting candles)" and "remembering the deceased as a family or group" were mentioned in half of the cases. In fact, its assembly is an eminently family activity in half of the cases, similar to Christmas decorations. Three out of ten people reported assembling it alone. Two out of ten reported praying before the altar.

The use of social networks is now an important way to practice the altar: almost four out of ten respondents said they had taken a photo of their altar and shared it on social networks. This data contrasts with the very scarce use of virtual platforms for the assembly of altars already mentioned. In other words, these resources are used for the dissemination of the altar, but not to replace its material assembly. This modality was especially compatible with the health restrictions derived from the pandemic, which probably prevented community celebrations consisting of "inviting family or neighbors to eat" which was reported in two out of ten cases. When asked about the adaptations made "by covid-19" (without specifying whether for fear of contagion or because of sanitary prohibition), almost half of the respondents (47.4%) said they had made some type of adaptation; the most reported were the change of place, its realization in a "reduced or simpler size", "without visits", or "taking into account sanitary measures". These responses point to a shift from tradition to the domestic space and its privatization.

Video design

With the material obtained, we decided to create the audiovisual essay entitled "Los altares de muerto: patrimonio cambiante de una tradición", since it was the ideal medium to give an account of the aesthetic and material varieties with which the mutations of the tradition are expressed. From May to November 2021 we had the support of Germán Torres, a film student, whom we were able to hire thanks to the funding provided by the research techniques scholarship program of the ciesas. Thus we embarked on a collaborative adventure between researchers and creator. First, the researchers were in charge of putting together an audiovisual script that would allow us to disseminate the knowledge obtained in the research with the writing of a narrative text, the insertion of the images of the altars received and the use of musical backgrounds that recreated the sound contexts of the altar traditions.

The script interweaves four resources: the narration in offThe researcher's findings and conclusions; the testimonies that describe the images that illustrate or accompany the narration; the sequences of images and the sound to musicalize or imprint the contextual setting to the images.

We had still photography material, we didn't have video, and we thought it would make the documentary too heavy; that's when we resorted to animation. Final Cut Pro X to give dynamism through the use of special effects and thus break with the static nature of the photographs. This tool also allowed us to make visual emphasis within the photographs themselves and thus enabled us to intervene them to strengthen intentional framing and focus, showing the specific elements that make up each type of altar and emphasizing their contrasts. In this way we were able to use the material in a prolific way, isolating different elements of the photographs with the objective of being able to observe the components and their different aesthetics among different altars.

The script consists of four thematic blocks. There is an introduction dedicated to contextualize the assembly of altars as a syncretic tradition with two aspects: the indigenous and the catholic.

The first block, "Altars in the time of covid"The objective of the exhibition is to reflect on how the Day of the Dead and the tradition of altar making were affected by the social confinement resulting from the pandemic caused by the covid-19. This section also explains the conditions under which the research was conducted and justifies why an online survey is used as a tool.

Block two, "Transformations of tradition", presents the different functional uses acquired by the altars of the dead. Block three, "Styles and aesthetics", was dedicated to the aesthetics identified by the researchers in the photographic archive obtained. The analysis of the aesthetics through the photographs allowed us to catalog the diversity of styles and with it to notice different functional meanings of the current altars of the dead, among which we describe those that were used as devices of family memory, those that are practiced within the system of lived religiosity that connects the world of the living with superhuman beings (devotional catholic), the commodified reconversion of altars as marketing and mass consumption guidelines, the resymbolizations that displace them to other spiritual or esoteric traditions, the strategic autonomy that appropriates the tradition of setting up altars as a "place of resistance" (Richard, 2006, p. 107): 107), as were the installations resemanticized by collectives that denounce deaths without justice such as femicides, disappearances or deaths by violence. Block four, "Places and senses", was dedicated to explore how, where and to whom the altars of the dead are dedicated, showing their adaptability to new contexts and circumstances. Altars are made in cemeteries, kitchens, homes, schools, abroad, in the street, in stores, and finally we received one from a group of paramedics specialized in transferring covid-19 who effectively adapted an ambulance to transform it into an altar for the dead. Each of these locations generates novel enunciations, which, when relocalized, transform the very meaning of the funerary practice.

With all the material obtained we were able to recognize the wide range of sites and senses practiced through the altars. These material dimensions speak in the first instance of the plasticity of the practice to adapt to new contexts and circumstances, probably one of the keys to its permanence. But secondly, their recontextualization also speaks of new appropriations for different purposes, all of them related to death and the dead.

Conclusions

Even though the pandemic of covid-19 brought about the cancellation of public ceremonies that affected the tradition of altars of the dead in plazas, schools, cemeteries and offices, the tradition was not interrupted, but was displaced to the domestic space. The interesting thing was to discover that this did not translate into a privatization of the practice, due to the fact that the internet, through socio-digital networks, became a space where photographs of family altars of the dead were shared. This is a very significant clue from several points of view, which we develop below:

1. Our sample proved to be significant in appreciating tradition among Internet users. An important finding turns out to be the fact that new technologies are not only not eliminating traditions, on the contrary, they are a new platform for visibilization and socialization.
2. The move to the Internet was not made through the virtual tools that this platform offers, but rather it was the mediation of photography that captured the physical assemblies that catapulted this practice towards the information and communication technologies (tic). Social networks have become the new support for socialization.
3. This leads us to reflect on the importance of the materiality and the aesthetic regime of the montages, since they are the ones that insert tradition into the new regime of the video-sphere, making it valid in the new conditions of media cultural transmission.
4. The tradition of the Day of the Dead has been unanchored from the traditional supports of ethnic and religious communities (which does not mean that it is not still practiced in those environments). The custom has multiplied and expanded to new sectors that give it renewed cultural meanings, class aesthetics and cultural uses. Patriotic patrimonialization and the mediatizations of entertainment and consumer cultures have turned tradition into a national icon and have removed it from the traditional and community controls of the practice. Nowadays there is no single norm or convention for its assembly; there are several sources that model and promote styles and contents with which tradition is redefined and reinvented. In this sense, it is far from dying; on the contrary, it is more dynamic than ever, but more open to different appropriations and reformulations.
5. The mediations coming from mass media cultures are in turn reactivating the plasticity and the uses and appropriations of this tradition. Contrary to what several sociologists have suggested about the fate of consumer signs as empty packaging of meaning and memory, the altars of the dead are a tradition where different memories are reinscribed, different functionalities ranging from the market and the spectacularization, to the appropriation of their assemblies as political discourse to highlight various claims related to death: unjust deaths, silenced murders, femicides, disappearances, etcetera.

The altars of the dead were able to adapt to the conditions imposed by the pandemic, so we can conclude that they will continue to be the most valued heritage of Mexicans because they offer a symbolic materiality that allows us to transit through uncertainty, connect the invisible worlds with the visible worlds, accommodate affections and generate closeness with the absent. The altar is a time machine that allows us to recreate ourselves cyclically by making possible a mutual re-inscription between the present and the past, without the need to cancel each other out.

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Renée de la Torre D. in Social Anthropology. Research Professor at the ciesas West. National Researcher level iii. Co-founder of the Network of Researchers of the Religious Phenomenon in Mexico (rifrem) and collaborator in its Academic Committee. Research topic: study of religious diversity in Mexico. She recently published the book Religious change in Guadalajara. Profiles and behaviors over three decades (1996-2016)., El Colegio de Jalisco/Universidad de Guadalajara, 2020.

Cristina Gutierrez Zuniga D. in Social Sciences. D. in Social Sciences. Full-time professor-researcher at the University of Guadalajara. National Researcher level II. Research topics: religious diversification and pluralization in Mexico, religious diversity in public schools. In 2020 she has published: "Religious reconfiguration in Mexico: Beliefs and Practices National Survey, 2016", in. Social Compass, 67(3), 349-371.