Colors of Remembrance

Amanda Aguilar
3 days ago
2 min read

Every November, Mexico explodes with color. Streets glow with marigolds, plazas hum with music, and families gather in cemeteries where candles are lit late into the night. This is Día de los Muertos, also known as Day of the Dead, a holiday where memories are alive, laughter mixes with grief, and the boundary between worlds feels thin.

At the heart of it all are the ofrendas. These are not simple altars, they’re works of art. A photograph of a grandmother might rest beside her favorite tamales, a cup of coffee, and bright orange petals that seem to glow in candlelight. Each object has meaning, marigolds to guide the spirits, food to nourish them, and candles to light their path home. Then there are the sugar skulls, painted with vivid designs that laugh at death instead of fearing it.

Food itself is its own language during Día de los Muertos. Bakeries overflow with pan de muerto, sweet bread dusted with sugar and decorated with dough “bones.” Families gather in kitchens to fold tamales, stir mole, and warm mugs of chocolate de abuelita. These flavors are not only offerings, they’re acts of remembrance, dishes prepared just as ancestors once made them.

The art doesn’t stop at the altars or the kitchen. Across Mexico, parades fill the streets with giant skeleton puppets, musicians, folklorico dancers, and children with faces painted as calaveras. Papel picado, colorful paper cut into intricate patterns, flutters overhead. Cemeteries glow like cities of light, where families sing, tell stories, and share meals among the graves.

What makes Día de los Muertos remarkable is its perspective on death. It is not hidden away or treated with silence. Instead, it’s met with music, flavor, and creativity. The holiday insists that memory can be joyful, that those who’ve passed are never far from the living. Through flowers, food, and art, life and death dance together beautifully and unapologetically