Oaxaca Day of the Dead,  Legend and History     
The Marigold Flower is prominent during the
Day of the Dead Festival in Oaxaca.
This three-day November holiday sees the
families cleaning  the graves and prepare
the tombs for the return of the spirits.  During
this time flowers decorate the tombs and
home altars. Families leave offerings for the
spirits in the home and at the cemetery, they
leave paths of marigold flower petals to
guide the spirits.
A visit to the cemeteries
near Oaxaca on the first two
nights of November can be a
magical time 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 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 XoxocCotlon, 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
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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.
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During Oaxaca's Days of
the Dead, Marigold
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
During Oaxaca's Days of
hint at  pre-Hispanic
origin for the custom,
originhowever, since
chocolate is a new world
plant and spreading
flowers before the feet of
the emperor was a
common pre-Hispanic
ritual.
The extensive use of the Marigold flower, a plant called Fluer de Muerto is of ancient origin for the
ceremony as is the burning of copal incense, a practice reported by the first Spanish conquerers.
Oaxaca's Days of the Dead ritual has a history that is hard to pin
down.  Christian and Indigenous beliefs come together on the
night of October 31 to create a spectacle full of mixed symbols.
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.
Marigold is the important flower
the Dead in Oaxaca and
throughout Mexico.
In the remote villages, the people
use a wild version of the
Marigold.  It flowers in October
and is plentiful in the fields.  
In Oaxaca the indigenous people
call the flower Cempasuchitl in
the Nahuatl language (Aztec)
The Spanish name for the
flower, flor de muerto, means
flower of death.
In the city and more affluent towns, tons of domesticated and
cultivated marigold flowers decorate the graveyards.  The
people go to the cemetery at night and  hold a cemetery vigil
by candlelight at the decorated tombs.
Marigold,  The Day of the Dead Flower:
The people of remote villages having meager
means to buy the cultivated Marigold, will harvest
the wild plant and use it to construct their
offerings.  (Ofrenda, an altar of sorts with gifts for
the dead)  They will  remove the petals from the
flower and spread them on the ground to make a
path to the house and to the grave.  The pungent
aroma of the marigold and the bright color of the
yellow petals will guide the spirit to the home
altar (ofrenda) and to the cemetery.