Day of the Dead

Mexico sets out an altar for its dead on the first and second of November and treats the visit as a welcome rather than a mourning. The dead are said to come back for the day, so what they liked is put out for them - food, drink, cigarettes, a photograph - and the living eat beside it.

The dead are received, not mourned. An ofrenda is built with their photograph, the food and drink they liked, water for the journey and a path of marigold petals to guide them in by scent. The tone is hospitality - the point is that they come, and that somebody laid a place.

The ofrenda is built in levels with marigolds, candles, salt, water, pan de muerto and sugar skulls, and a path of petals is laid to guide the way in. Graves are cleaned and decorated and families spend the night at them. The first of November is for children who died, the second for adults.

Mexico above all, on 1 November for children who died and 2 November for adults, with the graveside vigils of Michoacan and Oaxaca the best known. Guatemala flies giant kites over the cemeteries; the Andes keep a different set of customs on the same Catholic dates.