Sweets for Night of the Dead

Preparations are beginning for observance of Night of the Dead (the night that dawns on November 1st), an important event in the Pátzcuaro area. Erection of the tianguis is underway on the Plaza Grande, where handcrafts of all types and materials will soon be displayed for sale. There will be contests for the best artesanías.

During the week preceding Noche de Muertos, sugar and chocolate confections of myriad shapes and colors are sold on Patzcuaro's Plaza Vasco de Quiroga. Women sit and decorate the sweets by hand. Children are regaled with their names tenderly painted across the foreheads of little candy skulls. These dulces are also offered to loved ones, recently and long deceased, by placing them on altars and on graves decorated to please and entice the departed souls to return to commune with the living.

The sweets have already arrived.