Secrets of Día de los Muertos

3. Show us the way. After remembrances and prayers, the family may continue their vigil in the cemetery. A lighted path of cempasúchil petals, a pre-Columbian symbol for the soul, is laid out from the family’s altar to the cemetery, ensuring the returning spirits will find their way. Gravesites are cleaned and decorated with more flowers and intricate paper cut-outs known as papel picado, while friends and family gather for a celebratory all-night vigil known as the llorada del hueso. At midnight, the ringing church bells mark the souls’ return, and prayers are said for their eternal rest. Far from somber, the holiday is marked by laughter, music, dancing, and fireworks. Families finally eat from the ofrenda and share it with neighbors as the celebration continues into the early morning hours, while mariachis sing outside the cemetery gates.

4. Don’t forget us. In Mexico, the holiday has become a source of national pride and, increasingly, a tourist attraction, which is always a mixed blessing. In 2003, UNESCO proclaimed Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations part of our collective Intangible Cultural Heritage, the same year an ofrenda was laid out in Mexico’s presidential palace for the first time by then-first lady Marta Sahagún. Outside Mexico, interest in the holiday began to grow in the Southwest during the Chicano movement of the late 1970s, spreading to other cities with growing Mexican immigrant communities like Chicago and New York. Recent immigrants may send money home to relatives for the ofrenda or erect private altars in their new home.

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Ana Sofia Peláez lives in Brooklyn. A contributor to several Web sites, she writes about Latin food on her blog Hungry Sofia.

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