What’s on…

London’s  Day of the Dead
Columbia Road
Saturday 2^nd November 2024
Photo by Dmytro Anokhin

Columbia Road in East London will be celebrating Mexican Day of the Dead on Saturday 2^nd November  2024 from midday onwards.

The Mexican… is familiar with death. [He] jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love.

– Octavio Paz: ‘The Labyrinth of Solitude’

Mexican Day of the Dead is, despite its name, a joyful celebration honoring the passing of loved ones.  On this day it is believed that the spirits of the ancestors return.

Columbia Road is famous for its flower market and flowers are an intrinsic part of this annual celebration. Flowers such as marigolds decorate the outside of houses and help the dead find their way back to the land of the living. They also represent the transience of life. Shopkeepers will be dressed in suitable attire. Expect face painting, artists creating shrines and ghostly figures from the past.

The festival is based upon the Pre-Columbian cycle of life and death and the Christian Festival of All Hallows’ Eve is still celebrated in many parts of Europe. It was the syncretism of two distinct belief systems, Christianity and Pre-Columbian religions five hundred years ago that has led to this unique celebration.  The Pre-Columbian Festival is over 3000 years old.

All Hallows’ Eve was celebrated also in Britain in the 8^th Century. Its origins were in the Celtic festival Sainheim. This festival marked the end of the harvest season in Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. Cattle were brought down from the summer grazing fields and the livestock were slaughtered for Winter. Bonfires were lit and the fires were considered to be cleansing. The festival took place at Liminal Time. At this time of year, it was believed that the boundary between our world and the other world was more porous allowing the ancestors to move easily between the two. Feasts were had and the souls of kin were beckoned to attend. A place at the table was set and favourite food was served.  Costumes were worn and were a way of imitating and disguising those that wore them who were often heard to recite poetry and verse.

Expect a procession, a beauty parlor and a mariachi band, a skeleton bride and groom and a procession on Saturday 2^nd November 2024.

Many cultures and countries celebrate and honor their departed ancestors. In China, there is a whole month in which the ancestors are left burnt food. It is called The Hungry Ghost Festival. In India they celebrate seven generations with a bath in sacred water and then a feast.  In Cambodia, it is one of the most important festivals of the year. People pray and make offerings and in the morning and in the afternoon buffalo races are held.

The Day of the Dead festival, which featured in the opening sequence of the James Bond film ‘Spectre’, was extremely popular in 2009 and 2015 at the British Museum. This time, holding the festival on a street as opposed inside a Museum will allow for a more inclusive celebration of this popular festival. It is a celebration and culture that has a distinct appeal to the imagination.