In honor of our loved ones, we celebrate their spirits every November 1st and 2nd. We know this by common knowledge and many years of observing the tradition.
This year, I decided not to be a bystander but, instead, really participate. I went to the market and saw all the array of offerings for the altars and graves. The fields were covered with marigolds ready to be cut. Not only did I make an ofrenda for my dear ones with decorations, candles, and incense, but I also observed more attentively to what people do by photographing them and their decorations.
I saw people decorating graves profusely or just paying their respects. Others were building with bricks on a grave. I saw a few men serenading four family members —with tequila bottle included. A couple were a day late because they had gone to decorate their mother’s grave out of town, and they were back to decorate their little brother’s.
I learned that the paths of marigold petals through houses’ doors and the smell of incense are to guide the spirits in order for them to reach their altar and feast on the ofrenda. This-year’s deceased get a particularly large altar which has several levels that represent this world and the supra-world. The decorations and the food have a specific meaning or intention.
People welcome you to their houses so you can admire the altar and pay your respects, and they give you a treat of fruit and pan de muerto (bread of the dead) and, in exchange, you bring a very long and thick candle as a present for the altar.
Although this tradition has a considerable religious underlying, my heart was filled with an atmosphere of love and remembrance.
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