Día de los muertos en México. Does not get any better than this.

On Monday I had the precious opportunity to visit my students' ofrendas at UPAM. I learned so, so much about the holiday and its traditions. Namely, that an ofrenda should include:

-candles

-hojaldras/pan de muerto (sweet bread with a specific pattern woven on top, to represent bones, I believe)

-water

-salt

-flor de cempasuchil (the beautiful orange flowers everywhere)

-papel picado (the pretty decorative colored paper you see everywhere)

-photos of the beloved dead

Other very common ingredients to the perfect ofrenda include:

-sweets

-fruits (apples, mandarins, guava)

-calaveritas (skulls made of chocolate, amarynth, or sugar)

-the favorite foods of the dead being remembered

Each student group had their own twist on the traditional ofrenda. Here are some pics I took:

Prehispanic ofrenda

Ofrenda honoring famous Mexicans

Ofrenda to the pets in our lives

Ofrenda honoring a specific event that I no longer remember the correct name of (qué vergüenza)

Ofrenda on a boat :D

Honoring los luchadores mexicanos

ROBOT OFRENDA!

Traditional Mexican Ofrenda

Honoring extinct animals :'(

Physical Therapy Ofrenda!

Here are some ofrendas I saw in the town center:

All of this prepped me to make my own ofrenda, which you will see in the following post. ;)