On the nights of the 1st and 2nd November the spirits of the Mexican Dead Ancestors return. So that the spirits find their way home each house is decorated with a yellow arch made from marigold flowers. The spirits are left food and water, as they are always hungry after their long journey.
The dead come and join their families for food, drinking, singing and talking. In some parts of Mexico the family spend the whole night in the graveyard. They polish the tombstones and a picnic is laid on the tomb. Often the favourite meal of the departed is made. There are market stalls selling sugar skulls, tombstones, coffins and bread made into bones. Day of the Dead figures are sold.
A cowboy, a skeleton, a bride and groom, a mermaid are all shown as skeletons. The message is that despite riches that we may acquire we are all bones at the end of the day.
