MEXICO'S DAYS OF THE DEAD - DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

Art by Patrick Murillo

Today, Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and in certain parts of the United States and Central America.  It is not a morbid occasion, but rather a festive time.  In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.   In the United States and in Mexico's larger cities, families build altars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead. They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar  

Traditionally, the flowers used are marigolds, and the incense used on the altar is copal, the resin from a particular tree. Like moles and chile-laced dishes prepared for some of the ancestors, the flowers are quite aromatic and the copal has a distinctive smell.

The aromas are used or consumed by the spirits, which, like the scents, can't be seen. The foods are eaten (or given away) by the living later, after their essence has been consumed.