The annual rite features skeletons, altars and other trappings of death, but the ancient holiday celebrates life in its embrace of death. The skeletons dance and sing. Flowers, fruit and candy decorate altars. Death's morbid side is buried under music and remembrances. Muertos is perhaps the most popular holiday in Mexico.
Families come together to honor their ancestors.
The inevitability of death is accepted rather than feared. El Dia de los Muertos goes back to the Aztecs, who had not just a few days but an entire month dedicated to the dead. That way, the Spaniards believed, the annual recognition of death wasn't so profane. Muertos has evolved in Mexico and other Central American countries to include visits to graveyards, where families spruce up sites of deceased loved ones. Revelers construct ofrendas, the offerings set out for returning souls.