Dia de los muertos in Chiapas

Originated in Oaxaca and rich of traditions, it is after  the movie Coco that the engouement for the famous “dia de los muertos” got even stronger both nationally and internationally. The Catarinas, skull painted masks have been known for a long time throughout the world but what about the other customs ?

After a few days in San Cristobal, I heard of a tiny village of “witches”, famous for its alternative church where locals sacrifice animals and pray to different saints instead of one unique god. Interested in seeing different ways of celebrating the day in Mexico, I spent three days shooting all over the region, looking for the real meaning of this special day for people in Chiapas. That is how I found out the richness of the celebration, overall not so different from one town to an other. The movie made it more popular but the essence of it remained the same, grieving, celebrating life and death in a unique way only Mexicans do.

Some of the pillars of this three days festivities are the shrines, built for the deceased with their photos, their favorite food and drinks. You can find them inside the houses, the restaurants and on public places.  You can also find orange flowers on those shrines as well as on the tombs. The street are full of little fanions with hiles called paper picado, floating in the wind, sometimes ripped by it, reminding ourselves how fragile life is. In the cemeteries, people are gathering on the tombs, which are well decorated for the occasion, eating, drinking and playing music on them like a party where everyone in the family is reunited at last.