Day of the Dead

At the beginning of November, Mexican families celebrate the Day of the Dead by welcoming the dead back into their homes and providing feasts for them or visiting cemeteries with sumptuous picnics and decorating the gravesites of their dead relatives. People take the opportunity to reminisce and tell stories and get their families together. Though called the Day of the Dead, festivities take place over two days, the first remembering departed children and the second for adults. Special foods are prepared for family feasts, often in the shapes of skulls or skeletons, and some families build shrines covered in flowers with offerings of the deceased’s favourite alcohol, sweets and cigarettes.
The celebration dates from Aztec traditions, which originally celebrated children and the dead, however it’s now used to commemorate dead friends and family members and to reflect on the continuity of life. Rural regions usually observe the festival in a more traditional way than people in cities, but it’s a recognised national holiday, so most Mexicans mark the occasion.