On November the 2nd., all over Mexico, it is named the Day of the dead. This celebration has its roots back in the ancient native cultures that developed in the Mexican territory long before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors on the fifteenth century. The philosophy behind this celebration is the belief of life after death and that on certain occasions contact with dead ancestors is possible or simply it is an occasion to remember our dead beloved ones. In contemporary Mexico the celebration means going to the cemeteries to take orange flowers (Cempasúchitl) and sometimes live music to the tombstones of the beloved ones, buying sugar skulls that are sold in special tents, eating allusive decorated bread and sweet potatoes based dishes and building “altars†with the photograph of the dead person and including objects that remember his or her food habits or other preferences during his or her life time. Mexican Day of the dead has very little in common with Northamerica´s Halloween.
