Día de los Muertos is not a sad holiday, and it isn’t Mexico’s version of Halloween. It’s a tradition of remembering the dead by name, with their photographs, their favorite foods, and marigolds whose color and scent are said to guide them home.
The roots go back to ancient Mesoamerica, where peoples including the Aztec, Maya, and Toltec set aside time to honor the dead. After the Spanish arrived, those practices blended with the Catholic feasts of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. In 2008, UNESCO inscribed the Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead on its list of the world’s intangible cultural heritage. Families build ofrendas, altars with water, papel picado, bread, and candles, and many communities remember children on Nov. 1 and adults on Nov. 2. The Smithsonian notes that it’s celebrated mainly in Mexico and parts of Central and South America, and more and more by Latino communities in the United States.
I come to it as an outsider, and what moves me is how personal it is. Nobody on an ofrenda is “a loved one.” They are a grandmother who liked her coffee sweet, an uncle who told the same joke every year. The remembering is specific, and it’s joyful.
Remembering the people who built us
Every nonprofit and school stands on the generosity of people who are no longer here. Some left bequests. Some gave small gifts for forty years. Some volunteered every Saturday and never gave a dime. Many of our organizations remember them as a name on a plaque, if at all.
The tradition offers a better model. Remember by name, and remember what they cared about.
That matters most in planned giving, where it’s easy to treat a bequest as a line in the budget. Behind every one is a family that is grieving. Handle those conversations with patience. Thank the family before anyone mentions paperwork. Honor the donor’s wishes as written. Tell the family, a year later, what their person’s gift made possible.
A few questions for your team this week. Do we know the names and stories of the people whose estate gifts built this place? Does anyone on staff tell those stories to new donors and trustees? When a memorial gift arrives, does the family hear from a person within days? And what would it look like to remember our donors the way the people who keep this tradition remember their own?
Feliz Día de los Muertos to everyone celebrating.
– Mary-Ellen
Sources
- Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage)
- 5 Facts About Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) (Smithsonian)
Featured photo: Photo by Angel Maldonado on Unsplash.
