Día de Los Muertos

My favorite traditions in Mexico are the ones surrounding Día de Los Muertos. Wikipedia puts it better than I can.

Día de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is an ancient Aztec celebration of the memory of deceased ancestors that is celebrated on November 1st (All Saints Day) and November 2nd (All Souls Day). Though the subject matter may be considered morbid from the Anglo-Saxon perspective, Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead joyfully, and though it occurs at the same time as Halloween, the traditional mood is much brighter with emphasis on celebrating and honoring the lives of the deceased, and celebrating the continuation of life; the belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life.

My students and I celebrated Day of the Dead on Wednesday with time spent making an altar outside, crazy games, consuming sweets and much more. At first I was very worried about adorning the room with so many skeletons and death-related decorations. One of my students just lost her father a month ago and the assistant that cleans my classroom lost her daughter about three weeks ago. I did not want to remind them further of these losses. But it was explained to me that it is comforting to those who have lost loved ones to be able to remember them in an altar and put food out for them.

The first few shots are photos of the sweets they sell in the markets. These sweets are for the altars and for consumption by the living as well. I also posted some photos of the altars the kids (well, mostly the teachers) made at school.


* I have a whole bunch of pictures to share with you, but either these internet cafe computers (set not to accept cookies) or blogspot is not cooperating. I have gone through the rigmarole of uploading photos seven times now, but only the first photo went through. I will just write several posts with one photo in each until the problem is sorted out.

** By the way, I am writing from a stunningly beautiful town called Comitan. More pictures and blog entries are sure to follow soon.