El Día de los Muertos ofrendas

November 2nd is the Day of the Dead in Mexico but the tradition begins a week before when booths are set up in the plaza selling sugar figures and colorful cut tissue-paper flags. Bryan and I thought about what sugar figures we wanted to have in our ofrenda (or altar) we were building and decided against the skulls, opting instead for a plate of enchiladas (representing Charlotte's cooking ability and love of Mexican food), a basket of sweets (for our sweet tooth she indulged), a guitar playing skeleton in a serape (for some accompaniment) and a sheep (because we liked it.)

Each ofrenda needs to have a photograph of the deceased. Although this altar was specifically for Charlotte, I was fortunate to have wedding photos of both Charlotte and Del (Bryan's parents) and Jim and Barbara (my parents.) I bought two tin nichos (or boxes) and decorated them with paint and flowers.

We also needed to have something special Charlotte liked and since alcohol is a key part of an ofrenda we decided on tequila and limes for happy hour. Besides the above, an ofrenda also requires a candle, salt, purple flowers and marigolds, some water and a special sweet bread with dough bones in the shape of a cross which only appears in the bakeries this time of year.

When the entry was built I had asked the mason to create a niche in our entryway. This week Bryan painted it blue and I added some swirly design above it. He also installed the hummingbird faucet I found on ebay this summer to replace the more mundane faucet.

I'm including a photo of a public ofrenda we visited yesterday made to honor Diego Rivera who died this month, 50 years ago.