This Week's Stories: $1.2 Million Grant for Environmental Sciences Picture: Alter Ego Rare Medieval Manuscripts Examined Via the Internet Reunions Raise $2 Million New Faculty Profile: Shannon Jackson New Chair for Western European Studies Center for Western European Studies: What it Does Former Regent Brophy Talks on UC History Report Documents Latino Demographics and Voting Behavior in California Halloween Corrupts Day of the Dead Examining Multicultural Contributions to America Lecture and Reading by South African Novelist Baas Resigns from Berkeley Art Museum Picture: Rider in the Storm New Doctoral Program in Dramatic Art Debuts Two Management Positions Open to Campus Candidates Berkeley Dean Addresses World Bank Workshop Human Rights Fellows Report on Summer Projects Nov. 12 Celebrating a Century Regular Features Awards Campus Memos News Briefs Staff Enrichment		Halloween Corrupts Day of the Dead by Patricia McBroom, Public Affairs posted November 4, 1998 Traditional Day of the Dead items such as candy skulls and coffins are being displaced by plastic jack-o-lanterns on family altars. Halloween costumes and plastic pumpkins have flooded into Mexico on NAFTA's commercial tide, changing that country's Day of the Dead festivities. In response, Mexican nationals have united to stop what they view as "gringo imperialism," according to research by Professor Stanley Brandes, chair of the Department of Anthropology. "All over Mexico today, there appears evidence of resistance to the Halloween invasion from the north," said Brandes in an article published this month in the Journal of American Folklore. He said that clerics in several Mexican states have prohibited the celebration of Halloween on the grounds that it represents a threat to the sanctity of the Day of the Dead. In other signs of resistance, the city of Oaxaca moved to protect its competition for the best home altar -- set up to honor the dead -- by disqualifying any altar that presents "foreign elements." By contrast, the huge department store chain, Sanborn, which caters to the Mexican urban middle class has begun large-scale marketing of Halloween costumes and candies throughout the country, said Brandes. In spite of Mexican resistance, "Halloween has indeed become a palpable part of Day of the Dead festivities," he said. The two festivals share a common origin in the medieval Catholic holy days, All Saints' (Nov. 1) and All Souls' Day (Nov. 2). Mexico's Day of the Dead refers to a combination of the two and is normally observed on Nov. 2. It includes special masses to honor souls in purgatory, complemented by folk rituals, such as decorating graves, setting up home altars and sculpting sugar candies in the form of skulls, skeletons and caskets. Halloween, which occurs on the eve of All Saints' Day (Oct. 31), also draws its origins from the pre-Christian holiday called Samhain, celebrated by the Celts of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.    [ Back to top ] .

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