Today begins my favorite holiday, not that of Halloween but a three day ritual celebration of the beloved who have passed away.  It is a combination of ancient Aztec belief in the afterlife and Roman Catholic rites of All Saints and All Souls. It is believed that the veil separating life and death is temporarily drawn aside to allow the dead to visit the living for this brief time.

The first night the dead who passed the previous year are honored, the second night all those who died as babies or children, and finally the last night all the dead are honored.

Each family erects an altar in their home commemorating the deceased with Tagetes marigolds that are said to guide the wandering souls back home.  The offrenda consists of anything the dead once loved such as special dishes, cigarettes, alcohol and mole.  These are to keep the souls happy as long as possible while there.

Altars are everywhere in this season and this civic shrine becomes a celebration with cane, marigolds and fruit.

In the marketplace there are many stalls set up for the occasion to supply the specialized goods for altar and grave.  Here are mounds of red ****'s comb, the Tagetes marigold which originated in Oaxaca and long stalks of sugarcane.  In the broad basket are mounds of copal, a tree resin burned as incense in preColumbian times. 

The family graves, often just a mound of sand in a barren desert graveyard, are decorated for El Dia De Los Muertos with long beeswax tapers, flowers and food.  The family comes out for the night to tend the graves and to show respect for the dead.  It is festive with the old folks resting at graveside with relatives, the teens romancing in the dark, the children running everywhere. 

Muertos is growing in the Southwest where the Hispanic immigrants keep the tradition alive.  This is a truly American approach to the European All Hallows that brings fiesta, flowers and family together to remember.