In American society we shut out death. Death is something Americans do not want to think about. Death is frightening, and is forgotten so as not to worry our busy lives. Americans are generally afraid of death. This feeling is not the same in Mexico.
Death is a celebration in Mexico.
Mexicans are open to death, just as Frida expressed in her paintings. Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead. The day of the dead is a time when Mexican families remember their dead, and the continuity of life. In the Aztec calendar, this ritual fell roughly at the end of July and the beginning of August. During the postconquest era, Spanish priests moved it so it coincided with the Christian holiday of All Hallows Eve in an effort to make it a Christian celebration.