El Dia de los Muertos is now underway.
The Day of the Dead is actually multiple days, and in some places like San Antonio, Texas, there can be events for the whole first week of November.
This is when the living honor loved ones who have passed on with music, dancing, elaborate decorations and food, including what’s known as pan de muerto, the bread of the dead.
One way many people mark el Dia De Los Muertos is with an ofrenda, an altar at home that can be very elaborate, creative and colorful.
The decorations are all meant to guide the spirits of your people back home to celebrate with you.
Marigolds, for example, are bright and eye-catching and they smell nice.
Same for candles.
And then there’s the food, which the spirits need to refuel after their long trips.
Pan de muerto is a sweet bread, and there are lots of variations.
They can be flavored with rose water or anise, infused with orange zest, topped with sesame seeds or covered in sugar.
Sometimes they’re shaped like bones and placed next to candy skulls.
Or they can be round, with a cross pattern on top that’s supposed to suggest bones, and a ball on top that’s supposed to suggest a skull.
Some bakeries make these in extra bright colors, another way to bring those spirits back home.
Some families pass down their recipes from generation to generation, just as they share the stories about their ancestors and their family histories.
And it’s said that when the holiday is over the bread has lost most of its smell (or technically, the spirits have eaten it).
Of course, that assumes the living haven’t already eaten up all the pan de muerto by then…
Tomorrow at the Nashville Farmers Market, it’s the annual Turnip Green Festival.
There will be music, food trucks, science demonstrations for kids, a turnip green cookoff and a big cauldron full of greens, barbecue, catfish, beans and cornbread.
In other words, don’t fill up on food before you go.
San Antonio bakers explain pan de muerto’s importance during Day of the Dead (MySanAntonio.com)
Turnip Green Festival (Nashville Farmers Market)
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Photo by Eduardo Francisco Vazquez Murillo via Flickr/Creative Commons