Dia de los muertos

While everyone knows I came to Oaxaca in large part for the food, the timing was expressly to ensure I was here for Dia de los meurtos. While I didn't go to everything or see probably even a tiny bit of what was going on in and around Oaxaca, I was fortunate enough to go on a few trips with the school to some cemeteries.

Crazy school kids on a wild night field trip.

I sort of knew what to expect but also didn't. I made a point of not looking at travel blogs or anything like that so when I got there, it would all be new and amazing. And it was! So spoiler alert if you're coming down to Oaxaca for the celebrations and don't want to see what it's all about, then stop reading.

Dia de los meurtos is actually more than one day. It kind of stretches from Oct 31 to Nov 2 but in reality celebrations stretch through more than a week. At least in the city, there's a parade of kids, marching bands, and even dressed up pets at least once a day for the whole week. It was a rare day to not hear the subtle sounds of a tuba nearby.

But for now, here's a bit about the cemeteries.  We went to two, one in Oaxaca and one in a small town nearby called Atzompa.

The cemetery in Atzompa is well known for having quite a raucous all-night event on Oct 31-Nov 1.  The whole gang of us from the school arrived and found the walkway toward the cemetery packed with people and vendors selling food, drink, and more with loud live music blaring from a stage up ahead. But once we walked through the gates, we were greeted with an awesome sight of hundreds of candles and the scent of thousands of flowers. There was a big stage set up on the one end of the cemetery but the live music stopped shortly after we got there and was replaced with some really odd Mex-pop that provided the soundtrack to our one hour visit.

Atzompa

The Atzompa cemetery is quite old and also quite small. The graves are somewhat of a disorganized mess but almost all had new soil piled on top and decorations of marigolds and other flowers as well as candles. We arrived about 10 pm just when it was getting busy with families arriving to spruce up the graves, light candles, or sit together and pray, eat, drink, sing, and laugh.  It was quite a wonderous sight.

The celebrations go on all night there and many families, and tourists, stay through the night, but I opted not to since there was really no connection to any of the families.

The next night we started off watching a parade in central Oaxaca, that was punctuated by a wedding celebration outside one of the city's large churches that we happened to be standing nearby. The couple had set up what is known as a cathedral, but is basically a huge fireworks structure that they set off and it ends with their names being all lit up at the top. Totally off the charts here with the fireworks.

Oaxaca's main cemetery. 

Anyway, after that the school gang walked over to the main Oaxaca city cemetery, which was substantially larger and more formal than the one in Atzompa. The owner of our language school and her husband both have parents buried there and we visited and decorated their graves and showed our respects.  

So there is a very serious side to Dia de los meurtos but there is also just total craziness as well. Especially in Oaxaca, it was like a cross between Halloween and I don't know what with tons of people in the graveyards all dressed up and taking pictures with each other. There was live music and bands wandering around and just outside the walls of the Oaxaca cemetery there was a carnival, complete with rides, games, food, and flower sellers.

It was a party for sure in Oaxaca.

It was total pandemonium and complete sensory overload. I'm not sure these pics do it justice but it gives you a bit of a taste of it.