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As the sun sets the all-night celebrations begin with music and dance in the town’s main plazas. Children can be found lining the main roads that skirt their village looking for a “trick or treat”. Around midnight the “offrenda” which now include such personal touches as the favorite food of one’s dead relative are brought to the cemetery and placed at the head of the grave. Candles are lit and families settle in for a night-long vigil.
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Families build shelters and huddle together for warmth through the chilly November night; others spend the duration of the sombre night standing alone in silent remembrance of those who have passed before them. Some more traditional observers of the festival fast during the night and across the graveyard lit only by the flickering light of candles little is heard above whispered conversations.
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