Festivals & Events, October 27, 2006

Excerpted from “The Best of San Miguel de Allende”© by Joseph Harmes. Reprinted with permission. See more at www.thebestofsanmigueldeallende.com 



November 1: Día de Todos los Santos (All Saints’ Day). Also called Todos Santos, the day is reserved to honor every saint, known and unknown. In Mexico, it also observes the souls of children who died prematurely. Often cohetes (rockets) are fired to direct them home.

November 2: Día de los Fieles Difuntos (All Souls Day). The Day of the Dead, an unofficial holiday, brings color and splendor to homes and cemeteries, where a communion takes place with departed loved ones, reflecting the Mexican belief that the past is not dead. Elaborate altars are built in houses, offices and elsewhere. When cemeteries are visited, a trail of marigolds often is laid so the dead will know how to make it home. The cemeteries, which begin to fill the night before, are elbow-to-elbow with people cleaning gravesites and bringing flowers, food and drink to their ancestors. Death is mocked, a practice that has become a popular art form. Candy (often sculpted from sugar), toys and pan de muertos (bread of the dead) depict skeletons or skulls or other images of death. In San Miguel de Allende, the main cemetery lies on a small street parallel with Ancha de San Antonio (enter next to the Hotel Real de Minas), filled with vendors of every sort, especially flowers. By afternoon, the line into the grav
eyard is so long that it might take several hours to enter.