The Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) is celebrated in Mexico on November 2nd. It is a time when Mexican families spend time at the cemetery visiting the graves of their relatives, cleaning and perhaps painting the headstones, lighting candles, and arranging flowers, especially marigolds which are considered flowers of the dead.

It is also the time when Mexican families construct special home altars (ofrendas) dedicated to the spirits of their deceased loved ones. The altars can be simple or very elaborate, and usually include objects that provided pleasure to the departed person in life, including favorite foods and beverages. Altars dedicated to the spirits of deceased children (angelitos) often include toys, candy and other sweets.

The "ofrendas" almost always include sugar sculptures known as "alfenique." These objects may be small animals, such as lambs, miniature plates of food, small coffins, often with pop-up skeletons, and the popular sugar skull or "calavera."

The skulls are made by pouring a mixture of boiling water, confectioner's sugar and lime into clay molds which have been previously soaked in water. The calaveras are then decorated with paper foil for eyes and special colored icing for hair. Names can be added to the skull and Mexican children often exchange named skulls with their friends, a curious melding of All Soul's day and Halloween.

Ofrendas also include colorful "papel picado" or Mexican cut-paper. Papel picado has a long folk tradition in Mexico and the little town of San Salvador Huixcolotla, in the state of Puebla, is known for its fine cut paper. Although papel picado is used as a decoration for many other festive occasions such as weddings and baptisms, papel picado with themes relating to Day of the Dead is also very popular.

In part 2 of this 2 journal set, I will feature the ancient San Juan de Dios cemetery, and the Pozos cemetery.

There are many web sites/pages related to Day of the Dead. These are some good ones:

http://muertos.palomar.edu/dayofthedead.htm

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/mdiaz/mdmuertos.html

http://olvera-street.com/dia_de_los_muertos.html

http://www.holidays.net/halloween/muertos.htm

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/history/flashcards.html

All of my journals from this trip can be found at: http://www.worldisround.com/browse/NorthAmerica/Mexico/Guanajuato/