November 6, 2007--The faithful dead get to rest for another year

Oaxaca celebrated a beautiful Day of the Dead this year. With the political troubles of a year ago fading, Oaxacans were able to celebrate in their traditional way. Homes and businesses built beautiful altars, loaded with fruit, drink, personal items, and of course flowers, to lure dead loved ones to visit. The graveyards at Xoxocotlan, Atzompa, and other towns were decorated, glowing with candles, and full of families communing with their departed. It was lovely, touching, sometimes otherwordly.

Beautiful but eerie--a young woman at a Day of the Dead celebration in Oaxaca

The old panteon at Xoxocotlan

Special pan de muertos

Wednesday, November 1, 2006--Day of the Dead in a divided city

This year, Oaxacans had to overcome many difficulties to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Just a few days ago, Federal troops entered the city in force. They cleared the zocalo of the protestors who had occupied it and other parts of the city for more than 150 days. Some streets remain blocked, protestors have created a new encampment in front of Santo Domingo church, buses are still not running, and the city is divided between the demonstrators and their supporters, supporters of Governor Ruiz and his party--the PRI--and the majority of Oaxacans who just want to live in a peaceful city once again.

Remarkably, given all these problems, altars have once again appeared in houses, hotels and shops, the smell of marigolds and copal fills the air, and cemeteries in many of the nearby towns are full of families communing with loved ones who have died.

Flowers for the dead at a Oaxaca market

Altar with offerings in a Oaxacan home

A pensive child waits with her family in Xoxocotlan's cemetery

Monday, October 31, 2005--Day of the Dead Preparations and Celebrations

The Day of the Dead celebration is in full swing. Just about every house has a beautifully decorated altar covered with offerings for the loved ones who will come visiting during the next few days. People have been buying great bunches of orange and yellow marigolds, whose colors are thought to attract los muertos. Many people will be going to panteones--burial grounds--in Oaxaca or in their own pueblos to decorate the graves of their loved ones, offer them their favorite food and drink, and commune with them. Oaxaca and many pueblos are also scheduling concerts, dances, comparsas--marches, and exhibitions of altars and tapetes de arena--sand paintings.

The city is full of visitors from all over the world, who are scrambling to decide where to go and what to see during the next few days.

Altar ringed by cempazúchitl flowers

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Oaxacans of all sorts are preparing for their Day of the Dead celebrations. Abastos and the other markets are full of booths selling Catrinas (fanciful skeletons of elegantly dressed women), calaveras (skulls) made of sugar, chocolate, or candy covered with seeds, tiny altares (altars) with miniature offerings for the dead--fruit, flowers, mezcal, tamales, as well as real fruits, flowers, and other offerings that people will put on the full-size altars they are assembling in their homes. Vendors sit amidst mounds of cempazúchitl flowers--orange and yellow marigolds with a distinctive smell. Their colors are thought to be most attractive to los muertos.

Los muertos in sugar--at Abastos market

The day of the dead is a uniquely Mexican celebration. It combines indigenous traditions from time immemorial with the Catholic faith brought to Mexico by los conquistadores 500 years ago. The core belief is that loved ones who have died can come back to visit at this time of year. And, much like the beliefs that led the ancient Egyptians to bury their dead with all the food, drink and other supplies they might need in the afterlife, Oaxaqeños provide their returning loved ones with things they particularly loved in life--favorite foods, fruits, candies, tobacco, mezcal, you name it.

Ceramic calaveras--skulls--at Abastos

The city has not had that many tourists for the last month or so, but is filling up as the Day of the Dead approaches. Many hotels and B&Bs have  built or are building their own altars, in many cases inviting guests to add some offerings of their own. In other locations, including el Pochote and Llano park, groups are putting on Day of the Dead events. We just caught a guelegüetza--music and dance from Oaxaca's seven regions--at el Pochote.

Altar and tapete sand painting at el Pochote

A night or two ago, La Casa de las Artesanias opened a show of exquisite Day of the Dead figures created by a team of local artists over the past several weeks. Their were dozens of touching, sometimes hilarious figures. This was one of my favorites:

Dancing Day of the Dead figure

Click here to order your copy of Viva Oaxaca.

Click here to return to What's happening in and around Oaxaca

Click here to return to Contents.

Click here to return to Viva Oaxaca home page.