Dai_de_Los_Muerto

Dia de los Muertos

Dia de Los Muertos (Days of the Dead ) is a thoroughly Mexican holiday. November 1 is All Saint’s Day, also known as All Hallows Day or Hallowmas and November 2 is All Soul’s Day. In Mexico the two are combined into one holiday, Dia de Los Muertos. All Soul’s Day is very similar in it’s celebration to the ancient Celtic Samhain. Like people everywhere, Mexicans fear death, but they also mock it, joke with it, tease it and dance with it. They do not consider it the end, but the beginning. During the Dais de Los Muertos, like during the Celtic Samhain, people celebrate death by creating beautiful alters to the dead. Gifts of food and drink are set on the alters as well as folk art representing death in many fanciful forms.

Skulls, dancing skeletons, skeleton Mariachi bands, skeleton brides and grooms, and skeleton animals are typical representations. The alters may also have photos and other images of dead relatives. Among the favorite things placed on the alters are highly decorated Sugar_Skulls and Pan_de_Muerto, round loaves of sweet bread decorated with skulls and bones formed out of dough.