Thinking about Memorial Day yesterday made me wonder about holidays for the dead in other countries. So I looked it up (like I do). From a writer’s perspective (specifically with worldbuilding in mind), I thought it was very interesting that there are certain details that holidays to honor the dead have in common, regardless of country or culture.

Festivals to Honor the Dead:
6 Trends

 1. Dates

While there’s plenty of variety for the dates of festivals, the way that many of the dates are chosen generally has a basis in one of the following:

The Date of a Historic Military Victory

The date of a historic battle / treaty is used for holidays to remember those who have died in the military.

• The date of Memorial Day comes from the end of the American Civil War.
• Remembrance Day is celebrated in many countries and comes from the end of WWI.
• ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand is celebrated on the day the ANZAC forces first saw battle in WWI.
• Turkey’s Martyr’s Day heralds back to the date of their naval victory in WWI (and other Martyr’s days come from similar events).

Most countries also have individual holidays that are more specific – honoring soldiers who died in a specific war or conflict. But the ones above are holidays meant for all fallen soldiers, not only those from the war the date was chosen for.

The Harvest

The end of the growing season is the most popular time for a holiday that honors all dead (not only those who died in military service). They’re also called Festivals of the Dead.

• Samhain / All Hallow’s Eve / Halloween
• All Saint’s Day / All Soul’s Day
• Dia de Muertos
• Obon or Bon Festival
• Pitru Paksha
• Totensonntag

Most of these are older holidays, and they started in times when the life of people celebrating relied almost entirely on their harvests. So harvest time put a pretty strong emphasis on life or death. It makes sense that people would choose to honor their dead around that time (and pray not to join them…).

Spring

Festivals for the dead also often center around the idea of rebirth, so some of these holidays come in the spring. One in particular comes to mind:

• Qingming or Ching Ming Festival

Some cultures honor the dead in the spring in relation to other holidays rather than having a separate holiday. For example, in Greece, it’s traditional to honor the dead before major holidays, including Easter, so Good Friday is often reserved for rituals for the dead.

2. Time of Day

Sunrise and sunset have special ceremonies in many of these holidays. Sometimes, that’s because a battle started at dawn or because the transition to night is considered a meaningful time for spirits.

It’s important to remember that all of the rituals and traditions for these festivals have stories attached to them that establish that meaning to the people who live there.

3. Cleaning Grave Sites

Cleaning the gravestone or grave site is part of every single holiday for the dead that I read about. Clearly, the idea that maintaining the location of the remains and whatever marker has been placed there is universally linked with respect for the deceased.

4. Light & Fire

Throughout history, light and fire have had strong associations with the spirit. These associations are shared across cultures and are integrated in most (if not all) of these holidays.

Some common forms include…

• candles
• incense
• joss paper
• bonfires
• lanterns

The placement and size of these lights can be significant, too. A candle may go on an altar, by a grave, in a window, in a pumpkin, or floating down a river. And most have a shared purpose: to guide the deceased.

5. Food

Offerings of food are another common part of these holidays. Here are few examples:

• Special treats left by the graveside
• Bread and water offered to give the spirits strength to travel to the other side
• The remnants of a meal left overnight for the spirits instead of being cleaned up
• Candy and sweets collected from the neighbors
• A special rice mixture
• Tea rituals

If you research this, you’ll see an interesting mix of regular foods used in a particular way and recipes or foods especially associated with these holidays. I particularly liked a tradition in Cambodia that included a food offering for wandering spirits who have no living descendants to help them reach the next world.

6. Flowers

Speaking of associations, all of these festivals include flowers. Some of the holidays, however, involve a specific flower. The three that came up in my research were…

• Poppies for Remembrance Day
• Chrysanthemums for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day in Italy
• Marigolds for Dia de Muertos in Mexico

The first association came from a poem, and the second came from the time of year and what flower was in bloom. For the third, the marigold’s bright color and strong scent are said to help guide the spirits, but how that association came to be is less clear (at least, I didn’t find it in today’s research).

Those were the main similarities between the holidays.

Of course, there were less universal activities, too – parades, dances, decorated skulls, top hats and canes, special colors, a processions of cows, rewrapping the dead, etc.

Those more unique traditions can definitely be inspiring in your worldbuilding. Honestly, though, so long as you include most of the universal ideas, you can add any unique tradition that you want. Just make sure there’s a story behind it.

-Em