November 2 is el Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico. Starting in early October, theFeria del Alfeñique is set up in central Toluca, with vendors, skeleton displays and shrines of offerings for dead relatives from various ethnic groups and universities in the State of Mexico.
The Ofrenda (Offering)
For this holiday, Mexicans remember their dead relatives by placing a shrine in their homes full of fruit, sweets, and sometimes booze. If Grandpa used to like a special tequila or whiskey, then in the ofrenda it goes, along with Grandma’s favorite snacks and candies.
The Cemetery Visit
Along with the ofrenda at home, many people pay a visit to the cemetery to decorate graves of dead relatives and spend some time with them.
“We don’t cry. It’s a celebration,” says Pedro, a guitarist and music teacher. His family decorates the graves of their ancestors with candles, photographs, and yellow and orange flowers. They tell stories and sing songs, and fill in their relatives on what’s new in their lives. Pedro just got engaged, so he will tell this to his grandmother.
Some people stay all night, drinking beer, tequila, or mescal, tequila’s cheaper cousin. If they drink, then they share with the dead, splashing a little on the ground now and then. All night in cemeteries across Mexico there is light from candles and fires, music, singing, and praying.
The Feria del Alfeñique (Alfeñique fair) in Toluca
Here in Toluca, where I live, about a hundred vendors set up in the Portales, a pedestrian mall and series of arches downtown, and sell all things related to the holiday. This is the Feria del Alfeñique, a great way to sample skull-and-bone-shaped Mexican candies.
Big sugar skulls called calaveras are the most representative candies of the Day of the Dead. The image, with its colorful trim and toothy, laughing mouth, can be seen everywhere – on plastic banners for restaurants advertising their special meal, cut out of decorative pastel paper, and on sugary candy of many sizes.
Aside from sweets you can get little handicrafts for your ofrenda. My favorites are thecalavaritas, little skeletons at work, such as doctors, teachers, musicians or strippers. They are great gifts – buy the one with the same job as your friend. Last year I bought a taco cook for a friend who’s a chef, and for a friend with an office job, a little skeleton in a suit with his skeleton secretary on his lap. They cost only a few dollars, a great deal for being handmade.
Toluca is a little off the tourist track, but it’s an easy trip from Mexico City – only an hour or two. Take a bus from the Observatorio station in Mexico City, and then a taxi (30 pesos) to downtown Toluca (centro) and the Portales.
November 1 or 2 are the nights for a cemetery visit, but if you come to Toluca anytime during the month before the Day of the Dead, you can get a good taste of the tradition at the Feria del Alfeñique right here in the center of town.
I’ve lived here in Toluca for a few years now, so I have other articles on this blog and elsewhere if you’d like to see some more pictures or read more about this important Mexican holiday.
