FRESNO, Calif. \u2013 Dia de los Muertos \u2013 also known as Day of the Dead \u2013 is much more than the commercialized imagery that many of us see featuring colorful sugar skulls and skeletons adorned with flowers.<\/p>\n
The traditional Mexican holiday honors deceased loved ones by inviting them back into our homes and giving them provisions to help them on their journey to the afterlife.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a deep fusion of indigenous mythology and symbolism along with Catholic Christian rituals associated with All Souls\u2019 Day.<\/p>\n
And although everyone celebrates a little differently, three key ingredients are needed to honor the occasion: the sweet bread known as pan de muerto; the cempasuchil, or bright orange marigold; and the altar that anyone can make called an ofrenda.<\/p>\n
All of these are essential parts to celebrating a good Dia de los Muertos. KVPR set out to hear the story of how each one serves a purpose for the occasion. Note: Some words in this story are kept in Spanish.<\/p>\n
Pan de muerto offers a sweet treat for the dead<\/p>\n
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Rosi Garcia and her family run Panaderia Cafe Oaxaca in Clovis.<\/p>\n
Kerry Klein \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Garcia\u2019s mother, Eugenia Juarez, bakes specialty Oaxacan pan de muerto featuring figures made of flour and sugar.<\/p>\n
Kerry Klein \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Juarez, Garcia and other family members get to work by 3 a.m. every morning.<\/p>\n
Kerry Klein \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Garcia estimates her cafe sells hundreds of pieces of pan de muerto in the month leading up to Dia de los Muertos.<\/p>\n
Kerry Klein \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Garcia estimates her cafe sells hundreds of pieces of pan de muerto in the month leading up to Dia de los Muertos.<\/p>\n
Kerry Klein \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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An ofrenda in the corner of Panaderia Cafe Oaxaca features mementos of many of Garcia\u2019s family members, including her grandfather who began the family business many decades ago in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.<\/p>\n
Kerry Klein \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
Rosi Garcia starts every day the same way: with a hot drink and a Mexican pastry.<\/p>\n
Garcia, who runs a Clovis bakery called Panaderia Cafe Oaxaca, sometimes helps herself to a concha or cuernito \u2013 sweet bread in the shape of a seashell or horn \u2013 but this time of year, she has a clear favorite: pan de muerto.<\/p>\n
This delicacy, which translates to \u201cbread of the dead,\u201d is one of her cafe\u2019s specialties for Dia de los Muertos. The most common pan de muerto is a small loaf of sweet dough enriched with egg yolks, criss-crossed with strips of dough and sprinkled with sugar or seeds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s so many meanings behind it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe round pan de muertos, which are the more traditional pan de muertos, signify the cycle of life. The little figuritas that we put on top are bones. And then there’s a little ball on top of it, and that’s like our brain or our heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside the bakery, the air is warm and sweet with the scents of sugar, butter and anise.<\/p>\n
This tradition began with her grandfather, who first opened a bakery in Oaxaca, and it\u2019s now stretched here in the U.S. across decades and generations. Garcia now works alongside both her parents and her two brothers.<\/p>\n
Customers buy pan de muerto to eat, but also to place in their home altars known as ofrendas.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery bread that’s shaped like a human is meant to signify a loved one that you have that’s already passed away. And so you buy that bread and you put it in your ofrenda and be like, \u2018I’m so thankful that you were here in my life and this one’s for you.\u2019 [0:14]<\/p>\n
But, she warns, any food on your ofrenda is off-limits until the holiday is over.<\/p>\n
That’s why, before placing the bread on the altar, she recommends breaking off a piece for yourself first.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Reporting by Israel Cardona Hernandez in Clovis, Calif.<\/p>\n
The cempasuchil\u2019s strong fragrance calls the dead back home<\/p>\n
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Rogelio Sierra owns a marigold farm in Southwest Fresno. Marigolds, called cempasuchil in Spanish, are one of the most treasured elements of Dia de los Muertos celebrations.<\/p>\n
Samantha Rangel \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Sierra\u2019s farm and shop are open from September through November.<\/p>\n
Samantha Rangel \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Once placed on an ofrenda, the cempasuchil aroma is said to draw the spirits of deceased loved ones back to the homes of the living.<\/p>\n
Samantha Rangel \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Sierra estimates 90,000 marigold plants are growing on his three acres.<\/p>\n
Samantha Rangel \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Here, customers can pick their own flowers or buy them in bouquets at a farm stand.<\/p>\n
Samantha Rangel \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
In a field in the southwest part of the city, southwest Fresno, hundreds of thousands of bright orange petals glow as if they hold their own light.<\/p>\n
This is a field of marigolds, and it\u2019s owned by Rogelio Sierra. He says the flower reminds him of his childhood. He remembers how much he enjoyed the flowers\u2019 aroma inside his parents\u2019 home in the small town of San Miguel Cuevas in Oaxaca, Mexico.<\/p>\n
Today, everywhere you look, families, couples, and even young children are strolling through his fields, some carefully picking the stems one by one.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019re not just here because the flowers are pretty. As Dia de los Muertos approaches, the flowers take on a deep significance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re called flowers of the dead,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople remember their family and the loved ones they lost, and these flowers help bring them back briefly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flowers, called cempasuchil, are placed on ofrendas.<\/p>\n
Many believe the fragrance of the cempasuchil can lead those souls back to their family homes to spend one more day in spirit with the living.<\/p>\n
The flowers help Sierra honor his past, too \u2013 particularly the memory of his father, whom he lost 27 years ago.<\/p>\n
Rogelio started this business around eight years ago with just a handful of plants. Now, he estimates 90,000 marigolds stretch across his three acres of land, creating a blanket of golden petals.<\/p>\n
He sells the flowers from August through November. People can pick them, buy them in bouquets, and, of course, take lots of photos.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear \u2018wow\u2019 the most,\u201d he said, laughing. \u201cPeople are excited to be able to buy the flowers so fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that makes him proud.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good to do good \u2013 for the living and the dead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Reporting by Samantha Rangel in Fresno, Calif.<\/p>\n
Ofrendas honor the lives of lost loved ones<\/p>\n
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Monique Mowad has been setting out an ofrenda in her Los Banos living room for decades.<\/p>\n
Rachel Livinal \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think she looks very happy,\u201d Mowad says of one of her calaveras, or skeletons. \u201cShe doesn’t look scary. She doesn’t look dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel Livinal \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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\u201cI think she looks very happy,\u201d Mowad says of one of her calaveras, or skeletons. \u201cShe doesn’t look scary. She doesn’t look dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel Livinal \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Mowad\u2019s ofrenda includes tributes honoring her mother, father, grandparents, aunts and uncles.<\/p>\n
Rachel Livinal \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Mowad paints her own sugar skulls each year.<\/p>\n
Rachel Livinal \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
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Monique Mowad has been setting out an ofrenda in her Los Banos living room for decades.<\/p>\n
Rachel Livinal \/ KVPR<\/p>\n
Monique Mowad has been setting out an ofrenda every October for decades. The second-grade teacher honors her parents, grandparents and other relatives she\u2019s lost over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cTradition says that if you don’t have an ofrenda, if you don’t honor your ancestors, either they’re going to come back and haunt you, or, some way or another, your family gets cursed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her living room ofrenda features trinkets to represent her loved ones \u2013 like a model airplane to honor her father, who used to work for Continental Airlines \u2013 pan de muerto, cempasuchil, and candles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe candles represent one of the four elements, which is fire,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also helps light the way to lead the dead back to my ofrenda because I want them to come visit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mowad also includes some traditional Aztec items, like rattles, bracelets and coins \u2013 all of which are said to ward off evil spirits or help the dead on their journey to the afterlife \u2013 as well as hand-made sugar skulls and decorative calaveras, or skeletons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular one, she has a big 1900s style hat, she’s got her mascara on,\u201d she said. \u201cShe always has the high cheek bones, but the style of the face is so different than American, western style skeletons. It’s very beautiful. Like, I think she looks very happy. She doesn’t look scary. She doesn’t look dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The thought of death can be scary, Mowad acknowledges. But she said she finds comfort in the mythology around the holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kind of reminds us that death is not, like, you die and that’s it and you’re gone. Your spirit still lives. It\u2019s just, your body dies. The soul lives forever. It just goes to another dimension,\u201d she said. \u201cI’ve experienced the death of both my mom and dad, and it still bothers me that they’re gone, but I always lean back to this day knowing that they’re going to be back with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Reporting by Rachel Livinal in Los Banos, Calif.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. \u2013 Dia de los Muertos \u2013 also known as Day of the Dead \u2013 is much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[20057,23555,7,23556,17778,23557,10009,8065,9038,112,114,113],"class_list":["post-32586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-altar","tag-bread","tag-california","tag-catholic","tag-cempasuchil","tag-christian","tag-clovis","tag-day-of-the-dead","tag-dia-de-los-muertos","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}