Dia de Los Muertos is a celebration of life as much of a celebration of death.

And in Mexico, people go to the graveyards.

They bring flowers and wreaths and garlands and candles and photos of their beloved deceased.

Midnight, November 1st.

So November 2nd, the Day of the Dead.

The graves are mounded with marigold petals.

It just looks like gold.

It's so beautiful.

Marigolds kind of speak of the brevity of life.

There are short season to be able to grow marigolds.

Think of the scent of a marigold.

Heady, strong.

Musty.

The brilliant bright color was, paying homage to the sun gods of the Aztec Indians.

So they feel that both the color and the scent of the marigold help lea the deceased home for the night.

And the cross of marigolds at my front door.

As you walk in, it takes away your sins.

And it you in it cleanses you.

But it's a time of remembering those you loved to with the photo, with their favorite food, with tequila or mezcal.

A little thing they loved, a deck of cards, a cowboy hat, a sombrero you know, something like that.

People dressed in different costumes more like muerto instead of pumpkins or whatever.

But what I love, it's a way t remember your beloved deceased.

I do very lavish altars, obviously, and this one is my contemporary rendition of a Mexican Day of the Dead altar.

I don't have the marigolds I don't have a real Mexican motif but I'm celebrating and honoring my mother, my grandmother, my sister, who have all who are all now deceased.

But this particular purple altar in my cabin is more of my you know, contemporary version.

They all loved purple.

They all loved jewelry.

So I have their favorite jewelry around candles, one drank gin, one drank tequila, one drank bourbon.

So I made sure they all have a little bit to go with their altars so.

Because we're having a few though, we're going to just celebrate with them.

They loved seashells, they loved the beach.

And so I tried to bring out things that they loved.

And my grandmother's best friend, Pummie, made this doll bed for me.

What?

How many years ago?

I was ten, so a long time ago.

And I would sit in bed with my grandma and I'd be at the end of the bed and she'd rub my feet.

And in this hundred year ol scrapbook is a picture of Pummie My grandmas best friend who made the bed.

My grandmothe hated to have her picture taken.

So this is an oil painting of he in a beautiful Mexican blouson with purple flowers embroidered all over it, and I found the blouson I hung it up next to her pictur and it looks like angels wings.

The ofrenda for my father changes every year.

But he loved fishing in Baja, so he always gets some fish on his altar, the piece of flan because he loved flan and mermaids.

He liked mermaids a lot.

So some of you at home think, oh, I can't do all this.

I can't do all this.

Set up a little table, put a vase of flowers, put a picture of your beloved deceased, put some cookies out there for them, light a candle.

It can be that simple.

And it teaches your children well.

You know, it teaches them about people maybe they didn't know or need to remember as well.

Sancho was an incredible cat.

He was 16 years old when I lost him.

He was the mascot of the neighborhood.

Everybody knew him.

He was so bad.

One yea I had a box of Day of the Dead bread, a big cardboard box wit about 16 small Day of the Dead.

He opened the box in the middle of the night and ate the tops off of all of them.

He loved muffins.

In fact his altar has a muffin for him.

But he was the most precious cat.

There's a picture of him on his ofrenda, on his altar in a red velvet sombrero, and all of his favorite little things are up there.

Again, you could just have a picture of your dog and a candle and a little bowl of his favorite food, or some cat food, or a dog bone, or, you know, just remember him.

And we have a banner, Day of the Dead cats above hi to kind of flutter in the wind.

They say the flutterin of the banners and papel picado means life, life, life, wind and life.

But I think when we think of ofrendas, it can be spiritual, political.

There can be other ways that you might want do an altar.

And we have so much that's happene in the United States this year.

The floods, the fires well also Ukraine and Gaza and Israel.

We have so many things going on.

So in my other altar, I honor all of them as well.

You know, it's been a hard year, and we have to really take the time to remember what people are going through and to say, bless you.

Day of the Dead bread is so important, too.

That yeast scent of orange peel and anise.

10, 20 years ago in Austin, I could go to all the Mexican bakeries that are gone now, and by Day of the Dead bread shaped like corpses, shape like the skull, the Calaveras.

Now you go.

And all I can find are the round breads.

Because they're easier to make there.

I can't find the beautiful skull breads or the corpse breads and.

But oh, to have that bread slightly warmed up with a cup of Mexican hot chocolate.

That's a wonderful way to celebrate all your beloved deceased.

I used to go to the graveyards in Mexico.

I started going in the 80s.

I believe, and, I would go to the graveyards every day for Day of the Dead, and she's holding vigil at the altar for her husband, and they didn't have cameras.

So there's a little hand-painted picture of her husband.

She's very serious and very seriously holding her vigil there.

And the next year, I went back to the same grave to see her with the picture, to give her her picture.

Her family was all there, and they were holding vigil for her and when I gave them the picture, they were so excited.

But they were merry, they were remembering her.

They had tamales, they had some tequila, you know, and she was more serious.

She was of the old world of he's going to come home tonight, my husband is going to come home and he's going to have his little mole right there.

He's going to have his little Coca-Cola there.

I have been building ofrendas in my house for 40 years.

As you walk into my house, there were several smaller altars but the one on the dining room table is so much fu and it too changes every year.

I think it's my favorite this year because I've done tiers of sugar skulls and confections and little toys and things I've brought back from Mexico over the past 40 years.

And again, they poke fun of death a little bit.

In death, you do what you were doing in life.

You sell turkey, you sell pineapple, you make mole, you drink tequila and all these old confection dolls show people doing that.

I have sugar skulls in those rooms that are so beautiful.

They're probably 30 years old.

I bring them ou every year, wrapped in tissue.

They're burnished from all the candles and the altars I've done.

And they are so beautifully crafted.

I want it to be a time that I can reflect upon people, things, culture, histories that have influenced my life so profoundly.

Yes, it's a solemn time, but it's a joyful time.

Day of the Dead is a celebration of life.