✶ Mexico


Day of the Dead


She is painted to look just like a skeleton. Shells are pinned to her clothes. T ey click and clack like dry bones. T e sound could wake the dead. T at’s the idea! Welcome to the Day of the Dead.


T at’s when people visit their family graves. T ey paint the gravestones. T ey pull up weeds. T ey make a trail of flower petals that leads through the cemetery. T en they unpack picnic baskets.


Church bells invite the spirits to join the feast. It’s a happy time.


T e Day of the Dead is a tradition


in Latin America. It reminds people that death is a natural event. T e Day of the Dead has many


traditions, or ways of acting. People eat skeleton cookies. T ey lick candies shaped like skulls. Many dress up as skeletons. People tell stories about relatives who have died. Children listen, laugh, and learn.


T e stories teach part of their history. T e celebration lasts for two days. T en the spirits return to the spirit world for another year.


SEPTEMBER 2014 21


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