Mexico City, D.F., Mexico - Dia de Muertos

I had no idea what to expect from Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. In the US, it´s often thought of as "the Mexican Halloween," probably because it occurs on November 2nd and heavily features skeletons. I knew from my reading that the holiday is a more serious one than Halloween, since it�s the one day a year when dead relatives come back to visit with their loved ones.

People set up ofrendas, or altars with offerings to the spirits such as pan de muerto (bread of the dead), candy, liquors, and other foods and/or visit the graves of loved ones to clean and decorate them and then perhaps spend the night there. So I thought�it would be a very solomn occasion.�Wrong again. We went to the zocalo and it was like a huge fiesta. There may be a more serious tone inside people�s homes, or out at the cemetaries, but in the zocalo it was all costumes and festival.

Those in costume had no objection to having their picture taken, and seemed to even welcome it. Kids wandered around asking for something. We couldn´t understand a word their cute little mumbly selves were saying as they held out their little hollow plastic pumpkins, but it was clear that a donation of money was in order. Later we found out from Wikipedia they wanted a "calaverita" which I guess means little skull, and does indeed translate into money. So we got that right, luckily. The kids were everywhere, including the metro, going from person to person. (Apparently it is ok to say no.)

After wandering around and viewing some of the large ofrendas, we fell back on our favorite pastime, peoplewatching. We were lucky enough to sit on the curb next to a lady selling two of the cutest little puppies ever. ($500 pesos, or $50 USD). She tried to keep them on their little yellow blanket, and whenever they ventured off it she´d scoop them back up and scold that the sidewalk was sucio (dirty). Meanwhile, all around us kids were rolling in the bushes and licking things. It was kind of funny. From an outsider´s point of view, Mexican kids get to do whatevr the heck they want. Reach into the garbage, climb fences and walls, lie on the ground in public, join strangers in a bathroom stall... must be nice.

So anyway we had a great time watching the festivities but I wished I had enough Spanish to ask someone for a non-guidebook explanation of what we were seeing. I felt a little extra careful with my stuff, but I´m that way in any large crowd. In other news, we switched hotels since the spot where we were was a bit pricey. According to the LP, D.H. Lawrence stayed at our new hotel, the Montecarlo. It´s very nice. Our ceiling is about fifteen feet high and our bathroom has some pretty groovy tilework happening. Also we have one of those awesome window-balconies.