Dogs and candles serve the same essential purpose in Day of the Dead traditions: they guide the souls of the deceased back to the world of the living. Both symbols trace back to pre-Hispanic Aztec beliefs about death and the journey through the underworld, and they remain central to modern celebrations.
Why Candles Light the Way
In Día de los Muertos tradition, the souls of the dead exist in darkness in the underworld. Candles placed on the ofrenda (the home altar built to welcome the dead) provide the light those souls need to find their way back. Families commonly arrange candles in a row leading up to the altar, creating a visible path for the spirits to follow. In many homes, one candle burns for every person being remembered, with each flame acting as a bridge between this world and the next.
The candle arrangement on the ofrenda also carries deeper structural meaning. A white cross, traditionally drawn on the ground beneath the altar, represents the four cardinal directions corresponding to the four elements. Fire, represented by candles and torches, symbolizes the family’s enduring love for their deceased relatives alongside its practical role as a guiding light.
What Candle Colors Mean
Not all candles on an ofrenda are the same color, and each color carries specific meaning. Purple candles come from the Catholic calendar and represent pain, suffering, grief, and mourning. They acknowledge the real loss families feel. White candles represent purity and hope, symbolizing that the souls of the deceased have been spiritually renewed. This blending of Catholic and indigenous symbolism is characteristic of Día de los Muertos as a whole, which fused pre-Hispanic death rituals with Spanish colonial religious practices.
The Aztec Belief That Dogs Carry Souls
The role of dogs in Day of the Dead goes back to the Aztec understanding of what happens after death. The Aztecs believed that when a person died, their soul had to travel through Mictlan, the underworld, on a difficult four-year journey. One of the most dangerous obstacles was a broad river called Chiconahuapan, the place of nine rivers. The soul could not cross alone.
According to the Florentine Codex, a major 16th-century record of Aztec life, the family of a dead person would sacrifice a small yellow dog and burn it alongside the body. A loose cotton cord was fixed around the dog’s neck. The belief was that when the deceased reached the river, the dog would recognize its master and throw itself into the water to carry the soul across. White dogs supposedly refused, saying “I have just washed myself,” and black dogs said “I have just stained myself.” Only yellow dogs would make the crossing. This is why, as the Codex notes, “the natives took care to breed dogs.”
Archaeology supports the importance of dogs in Aztec death practices. In 2014, archaeologists digging beneath an apartment building in Mexico City uncovered the remains of 12 dogs buried together between 1350 and 1520 A.D. While isolated dog burials had been found at Aztec sites before, this was the first discovery of multiple dogs buried as a group, reinforcing that dogs held sacred status in Aztec funerary culture.
Xolotl: The Dog God of the Underworld
The connection between dogs and death was also embodied in Xolotl, the Aztec god associated with dogs, twins, and the underworld. The word “xolotl” itself may mean “dog” in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, and in Aztec art, Xolotl is typically depicted with the head of a dog. His role was to guide the sun through the underworld each night, protecting it on its dangerous journey through the realm of the dead. Because of this, he was considered a psychopomp: a being who escorts the newly deceased to the afterlife.
Xolotl is the twin brother of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god. In one well-known creation myth, the two brothers travel together to Mictlan to retrieve the bones of the dead so that humans can be created. Xolotl is also credited with bringing fire from the underworld for human beings. The Xoloitzcuintli, the ancient hairless dog breed native to Mexico, takes its name from this god and has been connected to these spiritual traditions for thousands of years.
Dogs in Modern Celebrations
Today, you won’t find dog sacrifices at Day of the Dead altars, but the symbolic connection between dogs and the spirit world remains strong. Families often place images or figurines of dogs on their ofrendas, and many people who have lost pets build altars specifically to honor them. The Xoloitzcuintli still holds a special place in Mexican culture as a living link to these ancient beliefs.
The 2017 Pixar film “Coco” brought the dog-as-spirit-guide tradition to a global audience. In the movie, alebrijes (the vibrant, fantastical creatures of Mexican folk art) serve as spirit animals that guide the dead through the afterlife. The film’s central guide is a dog, a direct nod to the Aztec belief that dogs help souls navigate the underworld. Alebrijes themselves are a 20th-century Mexican art form, but the film wove them together with the much older tradition of the spirit guide dog in a way that resonated with audiences familiar with the holiday.
Two Symbols, One Purpose
Dogs and candles both address the same fundamental concern in Day of the Dead tradition: making sure the dead can find their way. Candles pierce the darkness of the underworld so souls can see the path to the ofrenda. Dogs physically carry souls across the obstacles they encounter on that journey. Together, they reflect a worldview in which death is not a final separation but a crossing that can be navigated with help from the living. The family lights the candles. The dog makes the crossing possible. And for one night each year, the distance between the living and the dead shrinks to nothing.