Making a dia de los muertos altar series#

These can be made of papier-mâché, clay, wood, metal, cut-out tissue paper, and often, they are made of sugar decorated with colored icing, flowers, or metallic colored foils. It is common to see skulls or calaveras as decorations.

Making a dia de los muertos altar series#

These altars have a series of different components that vary from one culture to another that mostly include yellow marigolds, candles, photos of the deceased ones, papel picado or cut tissue-paper designs, as well as food and beverages offerings for the dead. To welcome them, the family build altars in their honor. El día de Los Muertos is celebrated on November 1st and November 2nd, in which the spirits of the dead are believed to return home and spend time with their relatives on these two days. As the only answer to many of our questions, death is an integral part of life, and the living and the dead meet in this day to emphasize the importance of death in the cycle of life.ĭía de los Muertos acknowledges the symbiotic relationship between life and death. A continuous echo that at certain occasions becomes louder. Those who passed are alive in our memories. Its precedents date to more than 3000 years ago when the Olmecs and subsequent Toltecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Maya, and Aztecs honored death. In Mexico, death rites date from pre-Hispanic rituals represented in murals, painted pottery, monuments, and artifacts, which shows how the Day of the Dead has its origins in the rituals practiced by the indigenous peoples of the Americas.