Like most holidays these days, our consumer culture has turned the ancient traditions that inspired Halloween into something that is almost impossible to recognize. Most of us know a bit about the origins of this holiday - especially in their Latin American roots as "Dia de los Muertos."
Here's what wikipedia says about its meaning.
Many people believe that during the Day of the Dead, it is easier for the souls of the departed to visit the living. People go to cemeteries to communicate with the souls of the departed, and build private altars, containing the favorite foods and beverages, as well as photos and memorabilia, of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so that the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them.
In light of that, at some point every Halloween since 2006, I find myself going back and reading a diary by Madman in the Marketplace titled Dia De Los Muertos, in which he reminds us to listen to and celebrate those who preceded us and fought the battles that got us to where we are today.
THIS Dia De Los Muertos, remember their struggles, but remember their COMMUNITY. Remember that unlike the right, unlike the worshippers of division and death, we can look back with joy and fondness at people who sang and danced and loved and communed DESPITE their struggles, despite the exploitation, the hatred, the discrimination and fear. They formed communities, they formed unions, they formed sewing circles and barn raisings and volunteer organizations. They rallied with their neighbors, mended fences, found common ground with NEW neighbors different from themselves. It's easy to remember the nativists, the klansmen, the misogynists and gay bashers and jingoists and bundists ... but also remember that there were ALWAYS good people opposing them, forging bonds, talking and working together to build a brighter, broader, more inclusive future. While there were slavers, there were abolitionists. When other men jeered and sniped, remember there were women who reminded others that a woman was every bit the equal of a man and should have a voice, and there were sons who listened to them.
Celebrate the artists, the writers, the musicians and performers who forged bonds between different groups of people, who showed us all that it's okay to be different, that different can be wonderful and exciting. Remember that every time that culture tried to expand our ties, broaden our conversations, help us see the world anew, the authoritarian minded tried to silence them, ban them, attack them, but over time the artists prevailed. From the churches and the juke joints, the beer halls and the smokey bars, from the salons to the corner table at the Algonquin, from coffee houses to underground clubs ... we can remember fondly those who found beauty and strength in the everyday and in the sublime and IN EACH OTHER. THIS Dia De Los Muertos, read their words, sing their songs, dance to their tunes, enjoy their paintings and sculptures and their videos. Remember that no matter how loudly, how violently, how insistently those afraid of openness and sharing and difference and change tried to stop it, the songs got sung, the rugs got cut, the words got read.<...>
We can and will prevail, we will find a way to become a font for peace again.<...>The fight, the struggle, the great human show continues, and throughout history given time and perserverance it has been the cultivators, not the extractors, who have brought beauty, peace and prosperity to the world. Over the next couple of days, remember them fondly, and let those memories inform your choices as we face the struggles ahead.
This year as I returned again to Madman's writing, I decided to let my mind wander and see if there was any particular person I would want to especially "listen" to and celebrate this Dia de los Muertos. One name stood out to me...someone who called herself "a black lesbian feminist mother lover poet" - Audre Lorde. Here are a couple of the ways she speaks to me today.
The future of our earth may depend upon the ability of all women to identify and develop new definitions of power and new patterns of relating across difference.<...>
As Paulo Freire shows so well in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us, and which knows only the oppressor's tactics, the oppressor's relationships.
Change means growth and growth can be painful. But we sharpen self-definition by exposing the self in work and struggle together with those we define as different from ourselves, although sharing the same goals.<...>
We have chosen each other
and the edge of each other's battles
the war is the same
if we loose
someday women's blood will congeal
upon a dead planet
if we win
there is no telling
we seek beyond history
for a new more possible meeting
- Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde
When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
- Audre Lorde