Towns are decked with orange flowers offered to the deceased, flowers still known as their pre-Hispanic name Zenpazuchitl. Dia de los Muertos is not a mournful occasion. It expresses a uniquely Mexican attitude towards death with a macabre humor. It is man's conquest of death when fear disappears in the grin of a dancing paper-mache skeleton. Even more, when a child enjoys eating a sugar skull with phosphorescent eyes and a common name like Maria, Lupe or Juan, inscribed in the forehead.
Skeletons rise from sugar coffins in marzipan graves.
Wooden toy skeletons execute frantic dances and clay ones move their jaws to laugh at death. In churches, alters are covered with papal picado. Worshipers bring sweets and pan de muertos, for the hungry in the other world. This is the survival of an ancient Indian belief that the mortal soul of the deceased still craves for human comforts. Cemeteries have more visitors than any other day of the year.