Day of the Dead or Feast of the Dead. Very solemn religious ceremony in honor of the dead, practiced among the American savages, which is repeated every eight years among some nations, and every ten years among the Hurons and the Iroquois.

This is the description Father de Charlevoix gives of it in his Journal of a Voyage to America , p.377. "One starts," says this author, “by selecting the place where the assembly will take place; then one chooses the master of the feast , whose duty it is to organize everything and and to send invitations to the neighboring villages. On the scheduled day, the savages gather and go two by two to the cemetery. Once there, everyone endeavors to dig out the corpses, then one remains a little while contemplating silently a sight capable of triggering the deepest thoughts. The women are the first to interrupt this religious silence, crying out in a woeful way which increases the horror already permeating everyone.”

"This first act over, one picks up these corpses, one collects the loose and dry bones, one piles them up; and those who have been selected to carry them, load them on their shoulders. If some bodies have not yet completely decayed, one removes the rotten flesh and all the spoils; one cleans them, and one wraps them in brand new beaver robes. Then, one returns home in the same order one had kept on the way in; and when the procession has entered the village, everyone places in his cabin the load he is carrying. During the walk, the women keep on crying out and the men give the same signs of grief as the initial day they mourned those of whom they have dug out the sad remains; and this second act is followed by a feast in each cabin, in honor of the dead of one's family."

"The next day, public feasts are organized, accompanied by dances, games, [and] fights, for which there are pre-determined awards. From time to time, one throws certain screams called the screams of the souls . One makes presents to foreigners, some of whom reside at times as far as 150 leagues and one receives gifts from them. One takes advantage of this event to deal with communal affairs, or the election of a headman. . . Everything, down to the dances, inspires gloom, and one feels some hearts pierced by the deepest pain. After a few days one goes in a procession to the big council room, dressed accordingly; one displays against the walls the bones and the corpses, in the same state as they were dug out from the burial ground; one spreads gifts for the dead. If among these sad remains are those of a headman, his successor throws a large feast in his name, and sings his song. The corpses are taken from village to village, and greeted everywhere, with the greatest display of pain and tenderness. Everywhere, one offers them gifts, and one takes them at last to the place where they are supposed to rest forever. . . . All these processions take place to the sound of instruments, accompanied by the most beautiful voices, and everyone walks rhythmically."

The last communal burial ground is a large grave which one dresses with beautiful pelts and other most precious possessions. The presents intended for the dead are placed aside. As the procession arrives, each family arranges itself on some sorts of scaffoldings erected around the grave; and when the corpses are laid on the ground, the women resume crying and screaming; then all the assistants step down in the grave, and no one fails to take some of this dirt, which they keep preciously. They think that this dirt brings luck in games. The bodies and the bones are orderly arranged, covered with brand new furs, and then layered with barks on which one throws stones and dirt. Everyone then goes home."