Dia de los Muertos(Day of the Dead)
El dia de los muertos or El dia de los difuntos, this is what we call it in El Salvador, it’s celebrated on November 2nd every year in the whole country to remember the loved ones that are not with us anymore. This day has inspired the Halloween we see across America in October.
This day is specially used by people to buy flowers, paint, limes, brushes, hoes, shovels and piochas and family go to the cemetery where their family is buried, close relatives in particular, who have died recently or within several years of their death.
This is a national holiday in both private companies and government institutions for people to visit the fields where their loved ones rest.
History of the Day of the Dead in El Salvador
November 2 is an international day in which the deceased are remembered. It may have been born as a pagan tradition in time immemorial and later adopted by the Catholic Church and other Orthodox churches.
Although the church has always prayed for the dead, it was from November 2, 998, when a special day was created for them. This was instituted by the Benedictine monk St. Odilon, France. His idea was adopted by Rome in the sixteenth century and from there it spread to the whole world.
In El Salvador this day seems to have been inculcated since the sixteenth century in the time of the arrival of the Spaniards to the lands and it was they who imposed this religious tradition that seeks to commemorate and remember the lives of people who are no longer in this world.
How do they celebrate the Day of the Dead in El Salvador?
Cement tombs are "chelated" with lime and the crosses are painted white or other colors, the letters of the tombstones are repainted with gold, silver or dark colors with the aid of brushes, decorated with paper flowers and bathed in melted beeswax to obtain a hard complexion and resist better inclemencies, or with cypress crowns filled with artificial or natural flowers.
People visit the cemeteries very early to bring flowers to their loved ones, this is known as "enflorar". The flowers are natural or artificial.
Some people also bring musicians such as mariachis to sing in the deceased's tomb and thus remember the songs they liked. In most cemeteries there are also special masses or cults held to remember loved ones on this date.