Feeding the Ancestors

Mexico's Day of the Dead falls on All Saints' and All Souls', kept in Europe since the Middle Ages. Elsa Malvido (1941–2011) of the INAH argued that 1930s intellectuals gave these colonial customs a pre-Hispanic meaning.

Elsa Malvido (INAH), as reported by Héctor Figueroa, 'México prehispánico, 40 días celebrando a los muertos', Excélsior, 2 November 2025.

Offerings of food to the dead at graves and altars, from Rome's Parentalia to Mexico's Day of the Dead.

Sources2 sources

Primary source

Ovid; trans. James G. Frazer, Fasti (Loeb Classical Library), 1931, II.533–542The Roman reading of offerings to the dead at the Parentalia: small gifts, a garlanded tile, corn, salt, bread in wine, violets, with prayers, appease the shades.
Ghosts ask but little: they value piety more than a costly gift

Where this claim originates

Héctor Figueroa, México prehispánico, 40 días celebrando a los muertos; verdad histórica de la tradición (Excélsior), 2025Elsa Malvido (1941–2011), INAH, held that the Day of the Dead is Spanish, colonial and Christian, and that 1930s intellectuals gave the feasts of All Saints and All Souls a pre-Hispanic meaning.
rescataron y recrearon algunas costumbres populares coloniales, católicas y romanas paganas