Cemeteries & Hanal Pixan

The old (original) cemetery in downtown Isla Mujeres--some flowers up for Dia de los Muertos, and a young woman adding fresh flowers. However, as in US for Memorial Day, many of the flowers are artificial. A new twist seems to be more of the solar powered lamps, which Sr. found especially popular at the newer cemetery, down the island just outside Colonia La Gloria. He took these pics downtown.
I really like the fresh flowers.  I appreciate the extra effort one makes to bring them.

     Another photo shows someone cleaning up or redoing the lettering on a grave.  Just down a couple stones to the right, notice the truck engraved on a tablet. It almost looks like a delivery truck, which may have been the occupation of the deceased.
     The Mayan name for this holiday is 'Hanal Pixan.'  I think mostly on Isla it is a family centered holiday, where many get together and share a meal, either at home or downtown.  It is a holiday, so no work.  I'm not sure how many 'camp out' and have all night vigils at the cemeteries with their ancestors spirits, who may return on this night, which is why there may be food offerings on small altars (especially foods enjoyed by the deceased).

Personally, I think it's kind of a nice tradition.  It's personalized.
I left some brownies and snacks for my dad last year (more around Memorial Day). Maybe I'll leave a beer next year!  And definitely, some Green Bay Packer stuff during the season now.
Actually, I am starting to see more of that kind of individual treatment in the local cemeteries around here too.  Strangely enough... another job I once had was as a cemetery flower caretaker.
I know that seems unbelievable....but it's true.  We were farming, we needed extra income, a local flower shop owner was giving up his seasonal cemetery flower box planting and caretaking part of the business-
What do you know...I bought the flower boxes... got a large number of his clients, and the rest is history.
I stayed with the cemetery flower caretaking business for several years (& worked in the flower shop part time during the week.)
  The first summer I dragged my 2 year old son, and my few months old other son, in a backpack carrier, around local cemeteries, watering at least twice a week.
As they got a few years older, they actually learned their 'water' routes and helped me quite a lot.
We often went in the early evenings, when their dad was milking, and made it back at finishing time, just before dark.   They remember it well.  Those were good times. We all worked together.

As one of my co-workers, Becky (from the flower shop) signed on a card she sent me--
              'until we meet again--in the flower shop in the sky....'
brings back a lot of good memories...in the flower shop, in the cemeteries...


 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is a bit of a post from Lonely Planet, describing the 'Hanal Pixan' event in nearby Valladolid...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also arrived just in time for the next big event on the Yucatecan party calendar, Hanal Pixan. You probably know it better as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), at the end of October and the beginning of November. All that skull-chic you associate with Mexican folk art–that’s Day of the Dead stuff, and, more important, it’s central Mexican stuff. In the Yucatan, the aesthetic is a little different. Hanal Pixan doesn’t dwell so specifically on the skull imagery. The name means “feeding the souls” in Maya, and the emphasis is on the altars for the deceased, where you place traditional foods and candles and flowers. Usually, they’re private–in houses or offices, but not a huge public show. Or it didn’t seem that way to me the last time I was in the area for the holiday, a few years back.
This time, though, I think I was in the right place at the right time. In Valladolid, schoolkids got out early to enter an altar-building competition in the lawn area in front of the big convent. The altars were dedicated to family, or politicians or public figures. Imagine a history or science fair, but rendered in palm fronds and marigolds.
I know it makes me sound like an 80-year-old to say it, but it was just so nice to see all those young people working together!



Hopefully, this is a custom that will be preserved.
There wasn't a photo of the final altar, but one can imagine it must have been splendid...    Valladolid would be a good place to go next year!