Google Doodle - Day of the Dead 2022
Today, the streets are alive with Spanish traditional tunes as one of Mexico's most important yearly festivals, Day of the Dead, or Da de los Muertos, begins! People with skeleton face paint now walk by homes with vivid sugar or clay skulls. To maintain the tradition, the Doodle artwork is made with actual sugar!
Indigenous tribes in Mexico established Day of the Dead rituals thousands of years ago. The Aztec and Mexica people believed that the souls of the dead could visit the living and encouraged their loved ones to return home each year. The ceremony is so profound that 16th-century Spanish immigrants embraced it and made it a holiday.
Mexican families prepare to honour their loved ones on this day by arranging their images on an ofrenda, or home altar, along with candles to help guide them home. As individuals welcome their neighbours inside to observe the ornate altars, plumes of copal incense waft into the air. Friends eat Pan de Metros, a delicious circular bread that signifies the wheel of life. The departed are said to first visit their graves, which are frequently decked with vivid marigold flowers and personal possessions.
Whether at home, the cemetery, or a neighbourhood parade, Mexicans spend the day telling tales and laughing to remember loved ones and ancestors.
Happy Day of the Dead, Mexico!