Facts about El Dia de los Muertos

Butterflies

The monarch butterflies carry the souls of the dead back to their graves. The monarch butterflies arrive in Mexico for their winter migration stop at the same time as El Dia de los Muertos is. El Dia de los Muertos starts October 31^st and ends November 2^nd.

Mictlantechutli

He was the Aztec god of the dead. He was thought of a nice god because he relieved people of their sufferings.

The Afterlife

They believed that the afterlife was a real place with mountains and valleys and such. The god of the dead was Mictlantechutli and the newly dead brought him offerings of food and gifts.

Calaveras

Calavera means skull in Spanish. They are cool. People decorate their houses with them to honor the dead. They also dress up with skull masks to show that death is nothing to be feared.

Ofrendas

Ofrendas are tables that families put together to honor their dead relatives. They put on skulls, chrysanthemums and other decorations. They also put on pan de muertos and sugar skulls and their dead relatives’ favorite food.

Cemeteries

They are gay places where people celebrate El Dia de los Muertos by placing marigolds and candles and such on the graves. These help guide the spirits back. The people sell ice cream and sugar skulls. Families celebrate their ancestors together by sitting around the decorated graves and singing, telling stories, eating, and the kids run and play.

Myth of Mictlantechutli

Quetzalcoatl was sent to the underworld to get some bones. Mictlantechutli tried to stop him. The bones shattered and Quetzalcoatl picked them up and brought them back to the mortal world. With these he made the different races of people.