Today, Mexicans celebrate the annual holiday of El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

El Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, dates back to Aztec times and is an annual Mexican festival in which families honor and celebrate their dead. Originally, the celebration was held in late July or early August during the Aztec month of Miccailhuitontli, and was presided over by the Aztec Goddess known as the "Lady of the Dead." In the era following the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, the Christian Spaniards moved the holiday so that it coincided with the similar Roman Catholic festivals of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. In Mexico, the Day of the Dead is generally celebrated with picnics at the graves of close family, and actually spans the first two days of the month. With many people visiting the cemeteries, the atmosphere at the gravesites is festive. People eat elaborate picnics, tell stories about their dead loved ones and create colorful altars. The altars are usually decorated with chrysanthemums or marigolds, special candies and foods, candles, gifts for the dead and pictures of their dead loved ones. Skulls and skeletons also play a role in the celebration. In Aztec times, real skulls were kept and used as part of the ritual. Today, however, candy and plastic skulls are used instead. Candy skulls decorated with one's own name are eaten. A plastic skeleton is hidden inside the traditional pan de muerto (bread of the dead), which is eaten during a special family dinner on this day. It is considered good luck to be the one who bites into the skeleton. Although the holiday has changed since its Aztec origins, and varies in its religious and cultural importance from the countryside to the cities, it remains a celebration of death and the continuity of life.

ARTSEDGE
In Tolerance: Comparing Cultural Holidays (K-4), students compare the holiday of Halloween, as celebrated in the United States, to the Mexican holiday of El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead, November 1-2). Students compare both holidays by looking at traditions, music and visual art. Each student then replicates a tradition associated with El Día de los Muertos by creating an altar in memory of an ancestor who has died.