Dia de los Muertos

El Dia de los Muertos/Halloween was a three day event here.  Halloween is not a traditional holiday here, but with the American influence, has been celebrated here for about 20-30 years.  It is not a big holiday by any means, but kids do dress up, Halloween candy and decorations are in the store, and yes, they do go trick or treating TWO days, Oct 31st, and Nov 1st.  We saw more people out on  Nov 1st (All Saints Day) than on Halloween itself.  Most kids were dressed up as skeletons, corpses, devils, etc in keeping with the Day of the Dead theme.  Going with the skeleton theme, "Trick or Treat" is replaced by "Give me my skull."  A blending of American and Aztec traditions. 

An "ofrenda" at the preschool

The Guardaria (preschool) decorated for Dia de los Muertos

El Dia de los Muertos dates back to the time of the Aztecs.  Ofrendas are built in homes and schools, etc with food, flowers, and sugar/chocolate skulls on them in honor of the loved ones that passed away.  From what I have read, death was celebrated by the Aztecs as a continuation of life, and not the end.  The orange and purple flowers below are the traditional flowers of the day.  El Dia de los Muertos, Nov 2nd (All Souls Day), I was told that people visit the graves during the day, and some of them take a picnic and eat over a person's tomb.  Early that morning I took a walk and encountered stand upon stand of flowers, and food.  Police were directing traffic and there were people everywhere.  There was a line 7-8 feet across and probably a 100 feet deep of people trying to get into the cemetery, the sidewalks were full, and more people were still coming. Some people did have coolers, and many were still there when we as missionaries went into the cemetery later that day.   

FYI for those that do not know me well.  I am not in the habit of taking pictures of graves, but I did want to send along some pictures of what life is like here.  I went back the day after to take these pictures, as it did not seem right to take them that day.  The graves were decorated beautifully, and you might notice from the pictures, though most of the tombs are in the ground, there is a planter box of sorts on top of some of the graves.  Some of them were full of flowers just for that day, while others had a garden planted in them.  

Tomb with flower garden on top.

More cemetery