Days of the Dead: silent prayers, tradition, tears and / or joy

Madagascar is in no way the world’s single nation having a day dedicated to the dead. Mexicans, for example, even have a couple of days to such a purpose. The Catholic Church made matters clear long ago on this issue: all of the church’s saints to be remembered on November 1st, and a prayer for all of the dead on the very next day. Nowadays, vacancy is only allowed on the first day of November, the opportunity to make to churches and lay bunches of flowers down on their beloved ones’ graves.

The cultural custom has actually been influenced by many more factors than the Church’s will. Madagascans remember the saints inside the church, and their own passed away ones by the same time in the same facility. In fact, the All Saints Day is but a Catholic tradition, and as such, not widely celebrated in this country with its 50% of Christians. The non Catholics are logically much more interested in the second remembrance day.

There are, as a matter fact, two ways to celebrate the Days of the Dead on the first days of November: either joy or sadness. A beloved relative who passed away within the year is still being mourned. Yet, loads of traditional Malagasy beliefs generally forbid mourning in the vicinity of a grave, namely in order to leave the dead soul lay in peace, and not to prompt it to take a living one away to the realms of the dead. As well, cleansing and decorating the family burial vault must wait until the D Day to be completed. This relatively short connection with the dead is year after year being balanced by the famous “famadihana”, the one day custom of turning remains over, practiced until the end of September.

In many regions in which the Famadihana is no common tradition, the All Saint’s Day, or rather a personalized way to remember the dead, has filled the gap. The Antambahoaka ethnic group for example puts its yearly mass circumcision ceremony, locally called “Sambatra”, as the local way to remember the memories of its lost ones through though without any particular ritual anywhere near their graveyards. In and around Toamasina city, rather the mourning mood has the upper hand. The year 2013 proved in this sense exceptional, since the main harbor city has widely paid tribute to the fallen, who passed away on the seas, on November 1st, considering that the event is basically supposed to develop on the last Sunday of the month.

The Days of the Dead may be held as an economic engine for leading the number of travelers to rise. This year though, the roads have not been filled up as expected. Florists also made a rather disappointing business and entertainers had to make do with a sluggish balance sheet of their dead remembrance campaign. Not even Halloween proved very lucrative this year. Madagascans have as enough to fear as uncertain their country’s situation is. The Days of the Dead consequently remain first and foremost but a commercial  booster, just as the Oktoberfest is, emulated by one local brewery’s “Beer feast”, launched on November 2nd, somehow as a round of drinks to the dead as well