Oaxaca’s Day of the Dead · Inviting the Dead Back Home

Oaxaca’s Day of the Dead begins at the end of October. Households set up altars with photographs of the dead, bread, liquor and the food they liked, and scatter orange marigold petals to lay a path all the way to the front door.

At night the whole family goes to the cemetery, lights candles and sits down to eat, drink and talk, spending the night with the relatives buried there. Bands play at the graves and children run about.

They say this is not mourning: once a year, you finish saying what needs to be said.

Folklore / Oaxaca · Mexico / Time immemorial