I’m slated to be in Southern France today, so I’ll be calling All Souls’ Day, Le Jour des Morts. (Though the official Catholic name in English is “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.”) But if you happen to be in Mexico (or here in Southern Arizona), it’s known as the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos. No surprise that Mexicans have more fun with the holiday than those stuffy European Western Christianity types do. Sugar skulls that laugh at death, candle-filled shrines in public spaces, personal altars filled with the departed’s favorite foods, covered with marigolds, with photos and other family memorabilia in more private locations. Whenever I’m in Tucson on this day, I love to come across the various ways that people here mark the occasion. Of course, the big occasion in Tucson is the annual All Souls’ Procession this coming Sunday. I’ll be thinking of it as our ship docks in Barcelona on that morning.
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