Día de Muertos — the Janitzio vigil

On Janitzio the Día de Muertos is kept as a vigil for the dead, not a carnival of them. Through the day of 1 November the community prepares: the graves are cleaned and heaped with cempasúchil marigolds, whose scent is said to guide the souls, and the ofrendas are laid with the food the dead loved, pan de muerto, candles, copal incense and photographs. After dark the families carry the candles and offerings to the island cemetery and keep the velación — an all-night watch at the graves, in candlelight and quiet prayer and song, waiting for the souls of the departed, and especially the children, to return and share the night. Out on the lake, before the vigil, the men have traditionally gone out in canoes with their great butterfly nets and candles for a ceremonial fishing, a much-photographed image of the island. The belief beneath it all is that on this night the boundary between the living and the dead thins, and the dead come home; the living keep them company with light and food until dawn on 2 November. Janitzio is a small Purépecha island reached by boat across Lake Pátzcuaro, and its observance has stayed largely the community's own — which is precisely why it matters, and why it asks for care. This is a family keeping watch over its dead, and a visitor's place is at the quiet edge of that, candle-lit and silent, not in the middle of it with a flash.