What Do They Do During the Day of the Dead Festival?
- In honor of the Day of the Dead, celebrants build alters near the graves of the departed or, in some areas, at the homes of the dead's relatives. The alters include representations of the elements of nature. Families place a crop on the alter to represent earth, a moving object to represent wind, a container of water to represent water and a wax candle to represent fire.
- People adorn the graves of little children with toys and colorful balloons. On the alters of adults they place the departed's favorite drinks and food, personal belongings and ornaments. They also place flowers at the alter, particularly a special type of marigold (zempasuchil) along with lit candles to guide the spirits home to their loved ones.
- Other traditional Day of the Dead ornaments that people put on the alters of their departed relatives include sugar, chocolate, marizpan death figures, "pan de muerto" (a rich coffee cake decorated with meringues sculpted to look like bones), skull-shaped candies and sweets, papier maché skeletons and amaranth skulls. People create elaborate skulls by crafting them with beads and other decorative items.
- In some towns, the bells begin to ring in the evening of the Day of the Dead. The bells continue to ring throughout the night at 30-second intervals, ceasing at sunrise when the relatives, who held a vigil in the cemetery throughout the night, go home. During the vigil, held during the night between 1 November and 2 November relatives intone prayers, burn copal (incense), play music and sing to welcome the spirits back to earth for the Day of the Dead.
- The Day of the Dead Festival includes the custom of making jokes and fun of death through calaveras. Calaveras recited on the Day of the Dead are poems that satirize the actions of living people, such as politicians, in a manner that suggests that they are really dead.