Cultivation methods and cultural motives for growing “Flor de muerto” (Tagetes erecta L.)

Abstract

The cultivation and traditional use of cempoalxóchitl flowers (Tagetes erecta L.) for “Day of the Dead” is a little studied subject. In this essay, information about festive activities and use of the cempoalxóchitl, as well as cultivation practices and cultural motives were qualitatively analyzed, using interviews undertaken in Mexican communities, direct observations, ethnohistorical sources and scientific publications from a 19 year period. The festivity manifests certain aspects in common, while others such as cultivation vary. Sowing is carried out by seedbed-transplant, or directly in tilled soil, either without a furrow or in a furrow; the first two of these practices being pre-Hispanic in origin. Traditional planting, from mid-June to mid-August, coincides with the months of the Mexica calendar, when cempoalxóchitl flowers were used. Concerning varied methods and planting times, associated with environmental and ethnic diversity, the emergence of immature flower buds occurs at the end of September, beginning of flowering and full flowering in the middle and at the end of October, respectively, corresponding to pre-Hispanic months when the dead were not celebrated and nor was cempoalxóchitl used. In the pre-Hispanic funerary area and current pantheon of Mitla, the presence of the cross is considered as a symbol of life and death, associated with the sun and cempoalxóchitl flowers.