Although most people outside Mexico believe Day of the Dead is celebrated only on November 1 Mexicans really celebrate “Days of the Dead.” The official days are November 1 and 2 but many places start celebrating as early as a week before with their own local traditions artists or local associations sit for days in downtown areas and the sidewalks are often covered by intricate “carpets,” or tapestries but it also has a unique tradition I’ve not seen elsewhere: the annual trueque A trueque is a market that dates back thousands of years people come a few days before Day of Dead to a special trueque with one purpose: to barter for items to put on their altars I’d just entered the trueque when I saw Edith Vázquez and her family loaded down with pan de muerto a Day of the Dead sweetbread that’s a staple on altars “We traded peanuts and sugar cane for the bread,” Vázquez said They had three kinds of pan de muerto: round in the shape of a small body and covered with red sugar; and rosquete which Guillermina Rivera Silva said represents the face of the departed Although most of the breads were baked in gas ovens “Everything tastes better made that way,” she said the trueque was filled with people carrying and bartering for the various types of flores de muertos especially the brilliantly colored cempasúchil (marigold) and terciopelo (cockscomb) Children wandered through with small baskets Karen Dominguez was one of the young people who serve as guides and explain the town’s traditions “October 28 is when we remember people who have died in accidents,” she said 2 is when we take flowers to the cemetery.” the 29th is for people who drowned and the 30th  is for the souls of the forgotten one street was filled with decorated graves When I asked where I could get more information about them I was pointed to Ana María Nevi Santivañez dedicated to people who worked on the festival.” whose gravestone said he’d used a match to see if there was gas in his home were preparing meals for all the Day of the Dead festival’s participants They said they’d be working until midnight they invited me to try their chilaquiles and café de olla ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC Kicking off at a raucous Day of the Dead party this odyssey takes in indigenous culture rarely seen by outsiders with plenty of music and laughs along the way I’m lying on the grass in the churchyard in Huaquechula A man dressed in eagle feathers is standing on top of a 30-metre telegraph pole banging a small drum and four other men are climbing up towards him they attach ropes to their ankles and lean far back Then the eagle-man starts to dance and sing Huaquechula’s celebrations for the Day of the Dead are a thing of legend (it falls on 2 November as well as staging aerial displays in the churchyard residents build elaborate altars to those who have died in the preceding 12 months In some houses the altar fills the entire main room Queues of visitors file past before heading into the yard to consume vast quantities of food and drink In one house I find an old man sitting like some model for a Diego Rivera mural beside his deceased wife’s altar “Her soul came during the night and drank a little cerveza michelada,” he says happily pointing to a half-empty glass of salted beer In the churchyard the flying men start spinning around the pole the ropes on their ankles unwind from the top and they gently fly down to earth In some places this strange trapeze act has become something of a tourist spectacle but not here: this is still part of an ancient communal catharsis Huaquechula flying menBut I’m not sure I can – continue then down the coast to finish at Los Tuxtlas biosphere reserve is determined to show me places like this – real Mexico In most places we are staying with indigenous people in their homes seeing a side of Mexico rarely glimpsed by outsiders and divide my time between learning to fly and drinking salty beer heading north-east to the hillside town of Cuetzalan where we walk through cobbled streets that seem little changed in centuries Old ladies wear white embroidered smocks and carry their bags by forehead straps Huaquechula … altar and old manWe stay in Taselotzin a formidable and charming woman from the Nawas indigenous community who has been fighting to keep young people interested in building lives here “Some men go and they never come back – just disappear,” she tells me Fermin and I retire to a bar filled with spooky wooden masks and drink dark herbal spirits from bottles with homemade labels but Cuetzalan does seem like a town worth staying in for a long time This time we stay in a hotel that looks out on the zócalo where a band are warming up a crowd of locals who have come for the son jarocho a local dance of delicate grace and beauty Veracruz street danceWe head out and sit in a pavement cafe where we are immediately besieged by hustlers: shoeshines mariachi bands and women who sell chilli snacks that can melt human beings There is even a man selling electric shocks You test your machismo by holding on to two metal electrodes for as long as possible but revives when attached to the electrodes watching courageous local lads dive for coins among the ships a humming little barrio called La Huaca built from driftwood and packing crates where they serve the best cheese empanadas I’ve ever tasted we find a square packed with dancers and musicians are out for the evening and performing sublime Latin moves More dancing on the streets of VeracruzYou might think Veracruz would be a major tourist destination while the administration is perpetually mired in crisis Around my visit it was peaceful and a delight to explore although the Foreign Office advice is to “take extra care” Tourists are rarer than a foot out of place in a street rumba – at least until I attempt it Next morning we breakfast in Café del Portal where waiters do astonishing things with coffee pots as they serve lechero – aerated coffee If Mexico seems to contain an inexhaustible supply of small magical towns Its long shady streets are filled with brightly painted colonial-era villas that were built with 18th-century timber money an old friend of Fermin’s and the town’s musical instrument maker We pedal through the streets and come to a handsome house on the outskirts where the shutters are open and Fermin shouts inside: “Is the maestro at home?” To which comes the reply “Which one?!” And then a smiling Don Rafael appears and welcomes us into a cool reception room furnished with rocking chairs Don Rafael (on double bass) and his workers lay on a concert in TlacotalpanAs a younger man Don Rafael was a celebrated musician among the Latino community in the US but now he has returned home to build the instrument he loves: the jarana He smiles and shouts into the workshop for assistance they romp through some classic rumba songs An old lady dances in the street as she passes Don Rafael breaks off to chat to some young students who have arrived seeking tuition I fall in love with Tlacotalpan and decide never to leave TlacotalpanFermin eventually drags me away It’s deep in the countryside – real Mexico!” and eat moros y cristianos – the fanciest name for rice and beans I ever heard hustlers are advertising pirated goods and brujos – sorcerers Witchcraft shop in CatemacoIn the morning we drive around the lake eventually abandoning the tarmac for a red dirt road that leads us into the jungles of Los Tuxtlas biosphere reserve and to Henry’s house Henry is a large and lively man who has helped the small indigenous community of Benito Juárez to establish tourism He takes me on a walk into the jungle that leads to a vast grotto of basalt columns into which a huge waterfall thunders I realise we are inside an ancient volcano now conquered by jungle Henry and his dog Duque inside the caldera Los TuxtlasFifty years ago this land was all deforested but Henry and the community have nurtured it back to health The birds have returned and even the howler monkeys I realise: his road trip to show me real Mexico has worked Everywhere we have visited or stayed with indigenous communities but it has never seemed contrived or dulled by overly worthy intentions Next day I meet a man whose life has been transformed by tourism “I was farming all my life and making very little income,” he tells me “Two years ago I went to a workshop where they told me people can make a living showing people birds I have loved birds all my life and know all their names and where to see them.” Now he still farms but is making good money from bird-guiding United States-based photographer Ann Murdy has been visually documenting the Day of the Dead across Mexico her new book on the holiday is attracting worldwide acclaim On the Path of Marigolds: Living Traditions of Mexico’s Day of the Dead shares 90 of Murdy’s photographs from three rural areas — Huaquechula Oaxaca; and the communities around Lake Pátzcuaro the book won a gold medal from the Foreword INDIES book competition it received an honorable mention from the International Latino Book Awards in the best arts book category I went to the website of the INDIES awards I scrolled down in the adult nonfiction multicultural [category] She was similarly surprised and pleased with the recognition from the Latino Book Awards Murdy has grown increasingly familiar with the Day of the Dead holiday which occurs from October 31 to November 2 Many of her book’s images reflect its traditions across Mexico such as gathering at the graves of loved ones with food Each area of Mexico she documented is represented by 30 photos taken between 2009 and 2018 Not only did Murdy take photos in cemeteries but she also captured more intimate commemorations at home altars “They look very comfortable,” she said of her photos of home visits “I did not pose anybody … The most important thing was respect.” Murdy gave a virtual book talk on October 21 at the Santa Fe Public Library It was so successful that she was to do an encore presentation on October 30 she called the Day of the Dead “one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever witnessed in my life.” the holiday has “changed my perceptions of death and dying” and she hopes that the traditions depicted in her book will live on forever She describes the book as an attempt to preserve those traditions in the wake of increasing commercialization of the holiday The Day of the Dead is becoming mixed with Halloween in Mexico as people masquerade as calaveras (skulls) the holiday has been marketed with products such as a Barbie doll a breakfast cereal and an Air Jordan sneaker Another perhaps more benign example relates to one of the communities around Lake Pátzcuaro that Murdy photographed — Santa Fe de la Laguna which some call the inspiration for the village in the hit Disney film Coco a boy named Miguel connects with his ancestors on Day of the Dead was reportedly inspired by a 107-year-old Santa Fe de la Laguna resident she is concerned about increasing numbers of tourists who wish to experience the holiday in Mexico where many exhibit what she calls disrespectful behavior such as taking selfies in cemeteries and at private homes “My book is a testament to traditions that are authentic in three rural communities in Mexico.” Murdy is well-versed in documenting Mexican traditions Over 2,000 of her photos are archived in the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago the largest Mexican museum in the United States An interview between Murdy and the museum’s chief curator Murdy said she has learned how here the dead are remembered in a way both reflective and celebratory in contrast to what she describes as the United States’ more tight-lipped approach “It’s a much more healthy way of looking at death and dying,” she said had never heard of the Day of the Dead holiday growing up she went to Mexico to witness this annual event and encountered compelling visual images: the deceased guided by candlelight on a marigold-strewn path from the cemetery to the ofrenda as mariachis play and copal incense burns hot chocolate and mezcal put out for the dead who will return to visit their loved ones She started in 1991 with a visit to the main cemetery in the city of Oaxaca Then she traveled southeast to Teotitlán del Valle an indigenous Zapotec Oaxacan village and the first of the three communities she would draw upon for the book She recalled people there flooding the market on October 31 to buy flowers such as cresta de gallo and marigolds also called flor de muertos or cempasúchil She saw people buying various kinds of pan de muerto Church bells rang and bottle rockets went off on November 1 with another round of fireworks the next day she heard not only mariachis but also rezadores a cappella singers with what she described as a strong Walking from house to house to see home altars she stopped in for pan de muerto and hot chocolate She was fascinated by the altars — which she described as completely different from those in the city of Oaxaca She grew to understand the pre-Hispanic roots of the holiday it arose from two separate Aztec Day of the Dead harvest festivals The first festival honored the “little dead,” children who had died during the ninth month of the Aztec calendar The second festival was the great festival of the dead which occurred in the tenth month of Huey Miccailhuitl with changes that helped pave the way for conversion to Catholicism “They saw the death rituals were very important to indigenous people,” she said ‘Let’s keep the death rituals and switch them to All Saints’ Day Murdy continued exploring how the holiday is celebrated regionally including in the Huaquechula and the Lake Pátzcuaro communities where she took the photo that was chosen for the cover residents here sometimes conversed in an indigenous language “I really prefer going to indigenous communities,” Murdy said “I’ve been told that Purépecha beliefs were similar to the Aztecs’.” people in lakeside communities prepare a box with four rectangular frames filling it with food to represent the bounty of heaven Hundreds of marigolds decorate bamboo arcos and if it is the first year following an individual’s death a straw mat is placed by his or her grave so that the soul can rest while journeying back to the Land of the Living Murdy also saw a unique way of honoring people in the first year after their death — the monumental altar with each one separated by baroque columns White satin folds represent the clouds of heaven as does a mirror and the deceased’s favorite foods “Most people have never seen monumental altars,” Murdy said “I don’t know why the tourism department in Puebla doesn’t advertise them more.” it seems that few will get to see these altars or other historic traditions featured in Murdy’s book public Day of the Dead observances have been canceled throughout Mexico the photographs had cultural value,” Murdy said Rich Tenorio is a frequent contributor to Mexico News Daily