Day of the Dead — Dias de los Muertos — Oaxaca, Mexico

Altar, Cemetery Chapel - Day of the Dead - Oaxaca State, Mexico
Susan­na Starr plac­ing pho­to on Altar, Ceme­tery Chapel — Day of the Dead — Oax­a­ca State, Mex­i­co ©John Lamkin 

The Day of the Dead cel­e­bra­tion is marked by var­i­ous rit­u­als, includ­ing the Amer­i­can Hal­loween. But in Oax­a­ca this hol­i­day, known as Los Dias de los Muer­tos, is some­thing that goes far beyond trick or treat­ing and chil­dren in cos­tumes. It is not marked by carved pump­kins and chil­dren gar­ner­ing as much can­dy as can fill their bags.

Rather, it is a holy hol­i­day, one that marks the cel­e­bra­tion of those who have passed away, death being part of life. Fur­ther, it is an hon­or­ing of those who once were part of their lives, a day of remem­brance. It is a day infused with a feel­ing of spir­it. Yes, there are parades, such as the large on in Mit­la with all kinds of flam­boy­ant cos­tumes, and major dec­o­ra­tions in the large ceme­ter­ies, but the most impor­tant acknowl­edg­ment of this holy hol­i­day takes place at the indi­vid­ual altars in each home.

For the Zapotec peo­ple, the altar is the focal point in their home. All dur­ing the year, it is adorned with pho­tos, some of Mary and Jesus, with can­dles, with vas­es of flow­ers and with oth­er objects that have spe­cial mean­ing. But on these two days, Novem­ber 1st and 2nd, the altars become more spe­cif­ic and elab­o­rate. Now, par­tic­u­lar flow­ers, includ­ing the deep red fox­glove and the bright orange and yel­low marigolds, sym­bol­ize this hol­i­day. More pho­tos are added of their loved ones who have passed on. There are plates of the spe­cial egg based bread that are in abun­dance in every mar­ket and more can­dles. Plates of nuts and fruit and spe­cial­ly pre­pared can­dies are there too, as well as a bot­tle of mescal, the tra­di­tion­al drink used to com­mem­o­rate all spe­cial events

In the evening, most of the vil­lage walks to the ceme­tery at the church, as they have been doing for cen­turies. They car­ry flow­ers and can­dles, food and drink, and kneel at the graves of their loved ones, as well as vis­it­ing the graves of their depart­ed friends. It is a shar­ing with the difunc­tos, as they are known in Span­ish, this day when they feel those spir­its have returned to be with them once again. The first day of Los Dias de los Muer­tos is ded­i­cat­ed to the mem­o­ries of the chil­dren. It is the day when they return to their fam­i­lies one more time. The sec­ond day is for all the oth­ers, which ends with the pil­grim­age to the cemetery.

Alta Gracia (Line of the Spirit dyemaker) at her Altar ©John Lamkin
Alta Gra­cia (Line of the Spir­it™ dye­mak­er) at her Altar ©John Lamkin

These pre­cau­tions would ensure you to overnight via­gra online find the right one. Accord­ing to recent report of Nation­al Health silde­nafil 100mg Insti­tute, about half of males over 70 have prob­lem keep­ing erec­tion and thus they lack the abil­i­ty to get an erec­tion. Silde­nafil Cit­rate which is a major com­po­nent of the drug then got cer­ti­fied as the best and online cialis the most reli­able solu­tion to deal with erec­tile dis­sat­is­fac­tion. Ear­ly ejac­u­la­tion Med­ical­ly known via­gra cheap no pre­scrip­tion as pre­ma­ture ejac­u­la­tion, erec­tile dys­func­tion, penis shrink­age and low sex desire. 
In my almost 40 years of liv­ing and work­ing with the weavers and oth­er  Zapotec peo­ple of a small vil­lage out­side of Oax­a­ca, I have always been remind­ed of what­ev­er they do, whether it is cel­e­brat­ing a spe­cial hol­i­day or sim­ply being involved in an exchange of busi­ness, every­thing is infused with the spir­it. Every home, rich or poor, has as the focal point of their home, a care­ful­ly tend­ed altar. The weav­ings that may be piled up on the bench­es along the wall are also infused with this same sense of spir­it. There is no sep­a­ra­tion. It is some­thing that I think is worth remem­ber­ing when we are involved in our own busi­ness trans­ac­tions, that they are not apart from, but part of our every­day lives…..

Susan­na Starr  Octo­ber, 2010 

Cemetery - Day of the Dead ©John Lamkin
Ceme­tery — Day of the Dead ©John Lamkin
Children's Altar - Day of the Dead  ©John Lamkin
Chil­dren’s Altar — Day of the Dead ©John Lamkin
Day of the Dead Celebration - Oaxaca, Mexico - ©John Lamkin
Day of the Dead Cel­e­bra­tion — Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co — ©John Lamkin