Oaxaca Day of the Dead, History,  Oaxaca, South Central Mexico
The Day of the Dead Festival in
Oaxaca is a three-day November
holiday when families clean the
graves and prepare the tombs for
the return of the spirits.  During
tombs and home altars. Families
leave offerings for the spirits in the
home and at the cemetery, they
leave paths of flower petals to guide
the spirits.
The cemeteries are special places during the nights of October 31 and November first because of the
thousands of candles and the marigolds and cockscomb flowers that  decorate the tombs. Each
village celebrates at different times and with different intensity but the evenings are sure to be unique
as families come to the graveyards to sit by the tombs and wait for the spirits to return.
The placing of skulls on the altars and the use of marigolds hints at the pre-Hispanic origin for the
ceremony as does the burning of copal incense, a practiced reported by the first Spanish conquerers.
The markets are full of flowers that the families will use to decorate their home altars and tombs
Marigold and cockscomb are the flowers with special meaning. The marigold, the Fleur de Meurto, or  
flower of death is most significant. In the evening the families decorate with this flower and sit by the
tombs waiting for the return of the spirits.
In the new cemetery of XoXo Cotlon, artist Juan Cruz Pascual decorates  with a sand painting replete
with Christian motifs
In the town of Tlalixtac south of Oaxaca City the
families sit by the decorated tombs while brass
bands move through the cemetery
Part of the excitement of the season in Oaxaca
comes when the shops in the cosmopolitan city
decorate with candles and flower petals in an
unspoken competition of artistic display
Tracing the indigenous roots of the Day of the Dead
festival in Oaxaca is difficult.. The use of Marigold flowers
and the spreading of flower petals in a trail to the grave
and the inclusion of chocolate in the building of an altar  
(ofrenda) does more than hint at a pre-Hispanic origin for
the custom, however, since chocolate is a new world plant
and spreading flowers before the feet of the Aztec
emperors was a common pre-Hispanic ritual

Oaxaca's Day Of The Dead celebration is a time for the
indigenous people to decorate their home altars with
marigold flowers, chocolate, loaves of special bread, and
candles and then on the last day of October, go to the
cemetery to  decorate their tombs. They welcome visitors
who come to the cemetery as they sit by the graveside in
a night vigil of waiting for the return of the spirits.
Oaxaca City becomes an exciting place to be during the
festival with music, Oaxacan art, museum exhibitions, and
the decorating of altars in the streets, Oaxaca's hotels
and shops decorate their entry ways and the restaurants
feature the regional cuisine of Oaxaca as they spend the
last week of October preparing for Oaxaca's Day of the
Dead.
Although Europe has a similar visiting of the grave on All Saints
and All Souls day, the trappings of Oaxaca's ritual has non
Christian undertones.  The use of skulls on the offerings though
candy skulls has an archaeological counterpart where
discoveries of tombs reveal skulls grouped together
disarticulated.  Tombs in ancient burials also have offerings of
plant material and ceramic vessels.
The festival belongs to the indigenous people after all, they continue the ritual regardless of the Christian
Spanish overtones and the further one travels from the city of Oaxaca the more pagan the ceremony
becomes.
More Info
Tourist Information Center
Secretaria de Tourismo
Colonial Center,Oaxaca
Tel.  951-516-0123
How to Get There
From the Zocalo go north to the Llano Park and
the theatre building at 703, the office is on the
right side of the building.
Oaxaca Hotels      
Oaxaca Day of the Dead, History in Oaxaca, South Central Mexico comes
alive when the people of Oaxaca decorate the tombs with candles and
flowers and hold all night cemetery vigils.
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