Pan de Muerto
October of 2020 I decided to honor Day of the Dead by embarking on making the delicious Mexican sweet bread pan de muerto. Day of the Dead is perhaps Mexico’s most famous holiday. This 2-day celebration honors the deceased through humor, gaiety, ritual performances, and the artistic displays of sweet beads/candies, flowers, and objects; often vibrant, grotesque, and beautiful in nature.
The holiday itself is a sort of religious syncretism, combining Catholicism with pre-Hispanic Indigenous religions. Today, the holiday falls on November 1st and 2nd, the Catholic All Saint’s Day and All Souls’ Day. The holiday is a celebration of life and death, wherein performances, rituals, displays, and general pageantry abound. While the Catholic part of the holiday emphasizes mass, in Mexico, this is perhaps the least important part. During this holiday, families also create altars for their departed family members, called ofrendas (offering). A typical ofrenda, placed on the grave of relatives or set up in the home, so that the living can watch over the dead, consists of macabre (and humorous) sweets such as sugar skulls and bread (Pan de Muerto) and other candies, as well as other foods and drinks, particularly those enjoyed by the deceased in life. They also include candles, toys, photographs of the deceased, marigolds, and numerous other offerings.
While the origins of the Day of the Dead is debated, the “holiday has come to symbolize Mexico and Mexicaness.” What is clear, is that by tracing the origins of pan de muerto, a staple of day of the dead, we can gain insight into some of the ways in which identity, in the wake of conquest and colonialism, was re-imagined.
In historical texts, bread is one of the earliest and most common offerings for the holiday. However, bread was not found in the Americas until after conquest and contact with the Old World. Instead, other grains, such as maize, were used to produce a variety of foods, such as tamales and tortillas. A sweet bread-like grain was a staple in Mesoamerica, and likely influenced the pan de muerto we know today. The Aztec (and others) used amaranth, often mixed with maize and honey (and sometimes the blood of sacrificial vistims), to create anthropomorphic (having human characteristics) figures, which were then eaten in festivals and other important events. Amaranth, like maize, is a grain domesticated in the Americas and was an important crop among many cultures in that region.
So, why is pan de muerto not made of amaranth today? Well, the Spanish saw amaranth, and its use in religious festivals, as barbaric paganism and sought to immediately cease the practice, by any means necessary. The result, banning the cultivation of amaranth, the destruction of agricultural fields, and punishment of any who defied those orders. The Spanish were so successful, that only in recent years has amaranth production started to rebound in Mexico.
The general banning of pre-Hispanic religions, the suppression of indigenous peoples, and the violence and death which accompanied the conquest, forced people to adopt new lifeways. And, while the Spanish were seeking to snuff out all that came before their arrival, they were also attempting to convert indigenous peoples to Catholocism (some conquistadors were just after riches). And with that, came the introduction of All Saints and All Souls’ day. At the time of the conquest, the celebration of these holidays, through mass, the visitation of cemeteries, offerings of flowers, foods, and candles to the deceased, were common in Spain and Europe. Colonial records from Mexico similarly describe the celebration as following European practices.
One of the European staples, recorded in 18th century Spain, is the selling of little “dead breads” during All Saints’ Day as well as references to leaving bread on tombs during All Souls’ Day. These breads, called panellets, were likely made from marzipan and coated with pinenuts. Sound familiar?
So, what should you take away from this brief look at the history of pan de muerto?
In many ways, Like Day of the Dead, pan de muerto embodies the interaction between European colonizing powers and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is neither entirely a Mexican nor European creation but has antecedents in both. Rather, it is a sort of syncretic amalgamation of pre-Hispanic and European beliefs and traditions (syncretism-hybrid religious systems, particularly those that developed in response to the disruptions of European colonialism). The result is a grand, pan-American celebration that has come to represent, for many who participate, the rich and complex history of a region that flourished long before the Spanish set foot on their land and continues to flourish despite the brutal conquest and on-going legacy of colonialism. And that is worth celebrating.
Link to recipe
Suggested further readings
Brandes, Stanley. “Sugar, colonialism, and death: on the origins of Mexico’s Day of the Dead.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 39.2 (1997): 270-299.
Brandes, Stanley. Skulls to the living, bread to the dead: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and beyond. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
