Dias de los Muertos: The Celebration

The Ofrenda - At home, families set up an ofrenda or altar to remember their relatives. The ofrenda is decorated with elaborate paper cutouts. The parents and children put fruit and flowers, particularly marigolds, on the altar. The mother makes special bread and candy for the altar. Pictures of the family members being remembered are added. In the evening they light candles. The ofrenda are very special.

The Skeletons - There are skeletons and skulls found everywhere. There are chocolate skulls, sweet almond coffins and white chocolate skeletons. Special loaves of bread, called pan de muertos, are baked and decorated with "bones."

Handmade skeleton figurines, statues called calacas, are very popular. They show the skeletons having a great time. There are skeleton figures of musicians, soldiers on horseback, and even a bride in her wedding gown.

Calacas

There are many drawings of the skeletons doing everyday things. Life and death and intertwined. Ancestors are very close.

The Parades - In some Mexican communities in Mexico and the United States, people dress up as ghosts, mummies and skeletons. They parade through the town carrying an open coffin. The body in the coffin smiles. The local businessmen toss oranges inside the coffin as the procession makes its way past their markets. Lucky "corpses" can also catch flowers, fruits and candies.

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