Day of the Dead

We knew this was coming up, had read about it, heard about it. The stores in town were filling up with flowers and bread of the dead. We’ve seen Day of the Dead arts and crafts both here and in Arizona, and the little skull candies, etc. but never experienced it ourselves before. This was our year.

For weeks the shops in town were gearing up. Never have I seen so many flowers in so many shops!! You could buy ready made floral coronas and crosses, or you could buy the floral foam and artificial flowers and make your own. The coronas included a picture of either Jesus or Our Lady of Guadalupe, or you could provide a picture of your departed loved one for the center.

There were altars set up in some stores, even in the WalMart and cathedral plaza in Mazatlan and in the our plaza here in La Cruz. The one in La Cruz was dedicated to Christopher Columbus and the one at Walmart had flowers, candy, food and bottles of liquor and it was stacked high with containers of pan de muerte, bread of the dead…

On the actual day, which is a national holiday, the road to the cemetery was completely blocked off. It was lined up and down with food vendors of every kind. The streets and vacant lots around the cemetery were teaming with cars and people.

Walking through the cemetery I was stuck by how the grave sites had been cleaned up and in some cases even painted. There were flowers everywhere, balloons on the graves of children, lots of candles and lots and lots of people eating a wide variety of food and drinking everything from sodas to beer to booze. Friends and families had their lawn chairs neatly arranged around the graves, they had shade structures up to protect them from the sun. Boom boxes were blasting favorite tunes. One large family grave area had a big tent with a banda band. There were balloon and ice cream vendors wandering through the graves. I avoided taking pictures of family celebrations, focusing on the quieter areas of the cemetery. Interesting and beautiful.