Día de los Muertos: What an Ofrenda Says

An ofrenda is a family’s love letter, written in flowers, food and light. Every object on it says something about the person being remembered, and each one is a word worth learning.

I fell in love with Día de los Muertos as soon as I learned about it. Having grown up in Venezuela, I found the idea of remembering and honoring loved ones familiar, but the way many Mexican communities celebrate it was completely new and fascinating.

In Venezuela, November 2 is recognized as Día de los Fieles Difuntos, and families may visit cemeteries, bring flowers, pray, or attend Mass. But we do not traditionally celebrate it with the same kinds of ofrendas, cempasúchil, papel picado, and special foods that are so strongly associated with Mexico.

That difference is one of the things that drew me to the tradition. It reminded me that the Hispanic world shares many connections, but every country and community has its own way of expressing culture and remembering those who came before us.

For the past 16 years, I have celebrated Día de los Muertos through cemetery field trips, cultural events, traditional foods I prepare myself, and ofrendas at home and at school.

Each year I celebrate Día de Muertos at Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, where the community gathers with ofrendas, food, music, art and a Catrina contest. My parents come with me every time.

As a Spanish teacher, I love that it gives me a meaningful way to talk with students about family, memory, identity, history, and cultural diversity. For me, that is one of the most beautiful parts of teaching Spanish: helping students see the culture and human stories behind the language.

Two days of remembering

Día de los Muertos is observed on November 1 and 2. The first day honors children who have died; the second, adults. It is celebrated across Mexico, especially in Oaxaca and Mexico City, and also in Guatemala and the United States.

Its roots reach back to ancient Mesoamerica, where Aztec, Maya and Toltec communities set aside times to remember their dead. Over the centuries those Indigenous practices blended with Catholic traditions, and in 2008 UNESCO inscribed the celebration on its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Not Mexican Halloween

The two sit side by side on the calendar, but they differ in origin and meaning. There are no scares here: families gather to remember with music, food and joy, because death is seen as part of life’s journey.

Reading an ofrenda, element by element

• Photographs: they show who is being remembered and welcomed home.
• Cempasúchil: this marigold, native to Mexico, is believed to draw souls with its scent, and its petals often mark a path that guides them home.
• Favorite foods and pan de muerto: the dishes the person loved, set out to welcome and nourish them.
• Candles and petals: families lay them along the path from the cemetery to the home to help souls find their way back.
• Salt: placed on the altar to purify the soul.
• Papel picado: the cut-paper banners; their holes are said to let souls pass through.
• Calaveras de azúcar: sugar skulls, whose sweetness stands for the sweetness of life.

Many ofrendas also include the four elements, water, wind, earth and fire, to guide spirits home.

From satire to icon: La Catrina

The elegant skeleton you see everywhere began as a print by José Guadalupe Posada, La calavera garbancera: a skull in a fancy hat that poked fun at vanity. Diego Rivera later dressed her head to toe in his mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central, and La Catrina became an icon.

If you visit or build an ofrenda this year, try naming each object in Spanish as you look at it. That is how a tradition becomes vocabulary that stays with you.

Sources: UNESCO, Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead; Britannica, Day of the Dead; Smithsonian, 5 Facts About Día de los Muertos; Smithsonian Magazine, The Meaning Behind Six Objects on Día de los Muertos Altars (2019); INAH, La Catrina, un ícono de Día de Muertos.

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