In addition to creating altars and painting faces, one of the most important parts of celebrating Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is going to the cemetery to decorate ancestors’ graves with flowers. We joined the crowds on November 2 to check it out.

Many people bring stools or chairs and gather with snacks and drinks, there’s music (including mariachi bands making the rounds to play songs for the families), and the whole cemetery takes on a festive air.

At the cemetery in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the decorations ranged from rather simple and classy to a riot of colors and styles.

 

(Note the huge jalapeño can being reused as a vase for the flowers!)

 

 

 

 

The American sector of the cemetery was notably more restrained than the rest!

 

 

I took a picture of this last one not only because it was beautiful but because I loved the sentiments engraved on the open book of stone:

No lloreis por mi los que me habeis amado, yo muero pero mi alma no muere, os amare desde el cielo como os he amado en la tierra

Don’t cry for me those who have loved me, I die but my soul does not, I’ll love you from heaven like I loved you on earth

 

 

I loved wandering around and soaking it all in, and at the same time I was thinking of my own relatives and friends who’ve passed on, wondering what they would have thought of it all and if they’d like to be celebrated and honored in this way.

I’ve always thought I’d like to be cremated, but being at the cemetery for Día de los Muertos made me think that I might like to be buried instead, just to be part of this beautiful tradition.