Many people who know of different celebrations of regional cultures are of course aware of the Mexican commemorative holiday of Día de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead. This holiday is a longstanding Mexican custom which, although it has a disputed origin, certainly has Native Aztec influence (either in origin or in adaptation). This taken with the obvious Christian influence of the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed also known as All Souls’ Day is of course the Catholic “day of the dead.”
This is not necessarily a problem; many current Catholic practices and traditions have ties to pagan customs or cultural celebrations that were used to Christianize the nations in Europe most prominently but also in other parts of the world. Where this may become problematic from a Catholic perspective is that Día de los Muertos can have a problematic practice when it comes to the level of ancestor veneration.
There is absolutely no problem with praying for your loved ones who have passed and even setting up pictures and candles of them in your home on All Souls Day in order to better pray for them and even teach one’s children the importance of praying for our deceased members of the faith. Where one may see Día de los Muertos going too far is that the general superstition or belief is that the souls of deceased family members make a return from the dead on this one day each year. In order to best facilitate this, each family ought to put out pictures and other items in order that their family may return, as well as food in order to help them.
This superstition is obviously a denial of the Catholic plan of salvation. The souls of the dead who are with God in Heaven don’t all leave on one day each year in order to visit their families. One may argue that every culture has superstitions, even Catholic ones, and that customs like these are often harmless. While this may be true, beliefs are downstream from culture and if children grow up generation after generation with the idea that souls come back from the dead to visit their families (which is a nice touching idea) it may diminish the correct understanding. What I mean to say here is that I find it unlikely that parents who celebrate this with their children genuinely believe that souls come back to visit and that food ought to be left out for them, but it obfuscates the real Catholic teaching about the importance of All Souls’ Day and why we ought to pray for the dead.
One can also draw the connection from Día de los Muertos to the cult of Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte or Our Lady of Holy Death; also simply called Santa Muerte or Holy Death. Santa Muerte is a quasi-deity or folk saint of a feminine personification of death. This devotion is a growing custom in parts of Mexico which are in part neo-pagan and have Catholic undertones. Of course it is a reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary, but it is also a continuation of the worship around Mictecacihuatl, the Aztec goddess of death whose worship never fully vanished after the Christianization of the Americas.
While one can recognize and respect the natural development of cultures and customs, we ought to remember that we should only tolerate that which is tolerable and practices that go against Catholic teaching should not be supported by Catholic families.
Born and Raised to Jewish parents in New York City, Kai Breskin is a recent convert to the Catholic Faith. A member of the Boston College class of 2026, he is studying Political Science, Philosophy, and History. His intellectual passions include Christian theology, history, and liturgical study. His hobbies include sailing, playing the piano, and singing, with a specific focus in Gregorian Chant.
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