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Dia De Los Muertos is one of Mexico's traditional holidays reuniting and honoring beloved ancestors, family and friends.
 The historical roots of this celebration date back to the pre-Hispanic cultures of Meso-America of the indigenous people, especially the Nahua (Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecas, Tlaxcaltec, Chichimec, Tecpanec) and others native to Mexico more than 3,000 years. Life was seen as a dream, and it was believed that only in dying could a human being was truly awake. The soul was then set free.
The most important dual images are the life-death statuettes. They show a fully fleshed living person on one side with a skeleton figure representing death on the other. Such figurines depict babies, children, and adults in the duality of life and death.
This theme is repeated, with varying degrees of emphasis, throughout each period in Mexican culture. Death seems to hold no terror for these or later is  always with the people - in their art, their legends, and their religion. Death was not a mysterious and fearful presence but a realistic recognizable character as much a part of life as life itself. When Christianity was introduced in the 16th century, religion and its symbols became part of the altars we now find in Mexico today. November 1st, All Saints Day, is when the spirits of the children, called "los angelitos" (little angels), are expected to return. Traditionally, it is a time when family members share memorable stories that would commemorate their lives together. A special altar is made and adorned with pictures of deceased to remind the younger generation of their family roots. The altar also includes a feast gather at cemeteries to clean and decorate the gravesite with flowers and candles. They picnic with their loved ones offering food and drink to strengthen spirits enough to return to their other world. The skeleton represents the spirit still living after it has left its flesh on this earth.
Días De Los Muertos is important for the family to maintain good relationships with the dead for it is they who intercede and bring food fortune to the living. It is a time to come to terms with our mortality and become aware of cycle of life and death. It is a day for honoring are beloved ones.
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