The Day of the Dead (final)

Imagine yourself in a cemetery commemorating your great grandpa how creepy can that be?. The day of the death (el dia de los muertos)is celebrated in Mexico like one of the most important holiday there is. This day is somewhat similar to Halloween here in the United States. Instead of being celebrated just the thirty first of October is celebrated the thirty first through the second day of November. What is mostly being celebrated on this day is the death of peoples loved ones. Specifics of the celebration vary with regions, but one of the most important customs is the making of elaborate altars to welcome departed spirits home. Vigils are held and families often go to cemeteries and fix up the graves of their loved ones. One of the common foods that cannot be missed is the bread of the death (pan de muerto) that can conceal a miniature skeleton.

I still remember the first and last time I celebrated the day of the dead holiday. Back when I was seven years old, we used to live in El Paso Texas which is the just the border of Mexico and the U.S.A. Both my parents are from Chihuahua, which is located on the north side of the Mexican region. From El Paso to Chihuahua is just a five hour drive. So we use to go more often than what we go now. I remember that on that year November second was a Saturday so we left from El Paso Friday evening and arrived to Chihuahua Friday night . When we arrived to my grandmas house all my aunties were there with the food ready to prepare the best traditional Mexican food.

The next morning all of my of my aunties arrived very early, at my grandmas house to start the tamales, pozole, and of course the famous bread of the death. While my aunties were cooking one of my cousins and me were helping my grandma make a altar for our recent passed loved ones. We used two different size tables a big one and a small one. The small one went on top of the big one and we cover them with bright colorful table covers. Then my grandma took out photos of one of her sister and one of my grandpas cousin who had passes away July of that year. We put their pictures in beautiful picture frames that had colorful skeletons dancing all over the picture frames. Then we spread all over the altar bright colored marigolds, while my grandma brought us two big candles of the virgin Mary to put on each side. We also put about four skulls of sugar that were painted with beautiful bright red, yellow, and orange colors all over. Its said that when doing this altars, we are suppose to put something that the death people enjoyed when they were alive. For my grandpas cousin we put a bottle of tequila because he used to love to drink tequila. However for my grandmas sister we put a plate of homemade cookies because she use to love cooking. When we finish with the altar we went to the cemetery and cleaned their graves and put fresh marigold flowers mixed with red and white roses.

The evening arrived and the food was ready and so were we. All the family kneeled down in front of the vigil, my mom lighted the candles and we started praying the rosary. We fallowed my grandma as she lead in the prayers. When we finish praying all the family stand up and went in straight to the dining room and sat while two of my aunties served the pozole and tamales. Finally everyone was settled in with their food, we all started eating and talking about the good memories we had from the people that had left us already. While we enjoyed the homemade spicy tamales and the warm salty pozole. From the look of every ones eyes and expressions of their face I could see they really liked the food as much as I did. I would say this holiday and Christmas were the days that brought my family together the most that year.

At last came the warm spongy bread of the death. After eating dinner we all enjoyed a piece of bread with a cup of hot chocolate while other drank coffee. Even though many think this is a holiday to cry for the life's of the ones that are not with us any more its not. Its actually a holiday were its believed that departed souls come back to earth and spend some time with their families and leave the next day. Therefore the families celebrate and honor them with things they use to like when they were alive. To many people this holiday seems very weird, but to us is one of the most important one where we feel the presence of the ones that are not with us anymore.