This was originally posted in 2019. 

What a difference a few days can make at a cemetery in San Miguel de Allende.  

Amazing.  

The reason: Day of the Dead or Dia De Muertos. 

I visited the large graveyard the last week in October (2019)with my photography workshop group. It was fairly early in the day about four days before the traditional Day of the Dead celebration.  

It was a lovely quiet spot with beautiful early light making it perfect to meander, shoot photos and imagine the lives of the folks buried there.  

Personally I took our instructor’s assignment to develop a theme to work on.  She called it “A Project.”   I choose to create images with my shadow in them, inserting myself into the former lives of the cemetery residents.  It was kinda weird thing to do, but she said that if we want to grow as photographers, one way to do that is to focus on a subject and develop it.  

I thought it was fun and will try the project approach again.      

Here are some results.  I hope this gives you a sense for  the quiet,  mostly undecorated grave sites.  

Dia de Muertos

Then I went back on November 1 and Holy Cow, what a difference.  The traditional Dia de Muertos festivities involve decorating grave sites with flowers and objects of meaning to the departed. Flowers everywhere.  Music. Felt like a party. It was a party.

The belief is that the dead actually return to visit the living.  People set up alters with  photos and favorite food and visit the cemeteries to tend to the graves and then picnic and celebrate.  

The cemetery was packed with families  and outside its walls, there were dozens of stalls where people sold flowers, candy, food and even t-shirts and baseball caps. 

It was clearly a festive and fun time.  I think the lesson i s that celebrating and remembering departed loved ones can be happy and joyous.  

The orange marigolds are the preferred posy because they have a strong scent and are believed to draw the dead back with their vibrant color. 

I hope you have enjoyed these images of the Day of the Dead at the San Miguel de Allende Cemetery.   

I was in San Miguel de Allende with Sante Fe Workshops.

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