Death spares no one

BarcelonaThis dance, better known in Catalonia as the "dance of death" (in English and German, the same: dance of death, Totentanz; in French, danse macabreThe 14th-century dance, or "Dance of the Dead," is a dance that originated in the 14th century, most likely due to the enormous mortality caused by the Black Death and the devastating Hundred Years' War. It was widespread throughout the continent and is rarely seen as a stage performance today; but historically it has been very present in the graphic and pictorial arts. The best examples are found, or were found—and drawings of which have been preserved—in Basel, Dresden, and the cloister of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Holbein made a whole series of engravings of enormous quality, and they are still being published. Apart from this, Florence Whitney is the author of a frankly intractable work, from around 1910, called The Danse of Death in Spain and Cataloniaof particular interest to us.

The dance of death commemorates a fact as universal as death itself, following a theme found throughout Western poetry: the king dies and the pope dies, the rich man dies and the poor man dies, the young man and the old woman, the young woman and the older man, the financier and the beggar... Death, as everyone knows, spares no one.

Wherever this dance has survived, or has been maintained, one should consider when, if it is only once a year, it should be performed. In places where it is carried out in the streets at Easter, a mistake is being made, unwittingly. Commemorating the death of Christ is one thing, and reminding the public that death will take us all one day is another. It's not that it's redundant; it's that the death of Christ has a redemptive aspect, while the dance of death, on the contrary, has none: it is entirely pessimistic, and it originated as a secular cultural expression valid for everyone, believers and non-believers alike.

A suitable day for parading a dance of death – which used to have the appearance of a corrua, with the skeletons holding hands, as can still be seen in a scene fromThe Seventh SealBergman's film—it would be the night of November 1st to 2nd, that is, the transition from All Saints' Day to All Souls' Day. What is untimely is witnessing this dance intertwined with the Baroque representations of the Passion of Christ.

Everything has a solution, except death.