International Living Postcards– your daily escape
Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
This is one of my favorite times to be in Mexico. Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities in Mexico last from mid-October through Nov. 2. I know it may sound morbid, but this time of year is especially unique, exotic, and colorful.
Stroll through the streets of San Miguel, where I live, and you will find street vendors and shops full of the colorful items used in the celebrations: skeletons and other macabre toys; intricate tissue paper cut-outs called papel picado; colorful candles, wreaths, and crosses decorated with paper or silk flowers; and fresh seasonal flowers. Edible goodies made from sugar and shaped like skulls and coffins are also sold, along with special pastries like pan de muerto, topped with bits of dough shaped like bones. All of these goodies are destined for the buyer’s ofrenda de muertos (offering to the dead).
Typically, Nov. 1 is the day to remember angelitos (little angels)–deceased infants and children. Those who died as adults are honored Nov. 2. On these days, special foods are prepared, offerings are laid out for the departed on commemorative altars, and there are lively reunions at family burial plots, along with, of course, lots of noisy fireworks. It’s a colorful, boisterous, fun fiesta in the cemetery.
Marzena Romanowicz
For International Living in Mexico
