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Mexico's colorful 'Day of the Dead' festival
Mexico's colorful 'Day of the Dead' festival
Death can be a morbid and solemn subject in many cultures, but in Mexico, it's a cause for celebration -- at least for two nights a year. (Source: Agence France-Presse)
From November 1-2, people throughout the country deck their homes, streets and relatives' graves with flowers, candles, confetti and colorful skulls for the Day of the Dead.
The traditional festival honoring the deceased centers around the belief that the living and the dead can commune during the brief period.
Known for its bright colors and elaborate, cartoonish skeleton costumes, the festival has become a popular symbol of Mexican culture around the world.
The Day of the Dead, which is widely considered to be Mexico's most important festival, is rooted in the indigenous Mexica culture, mixed with Christian superstition brought by Spanish colonizers.
The Mexica were the dominant indigenous population in pre-Hispanic Mexico.
The modern celebration is based on a Mexica legend that after death, they traveled through the nine regions of the underworld, known as Mictlan.
The ancient pagan tradition has since developed into a modern festival.
Millions of Mexican families set up altars on which they place the personal belongings of the dead and adorn them with the intensely orange Mexican marigold flower and confetti in the shape of skulls.
The Mexico City government organizes various activities for the festival, which in 2003 was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
This year, the festival began with a massive parade of "Calavera Catrinas" -- the iconic cartoon skeleton wearing a European-style hat -- and ended with an offering at the Chapultepec Forest.
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