El Dia de Muertos Its 3am, long past Closing Time, but in the village cementario of San Antonio Arrazola,10 miles west of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, the party has just begun. This is the first night of El Dia de Muertos, the Day of the Dead. The graveyard is alight with hundreds of tall candles and campfires, tombstones are topped with mounds of newly dug soil ( ominously resembling new graves), covered with heads of large orange marigolds and decorated with family photos of deceased . There are also elaborated painted ceramic skulls, tiny sugar crafted skulls , offerings of fruit, traditional pan de muertos and last but by not means least, bottles of the firey local mescal. Entire families sit around tombstones, elderly senoras traditionally dressed in locally woven brightly coloured tunics and shawls, their
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