In Central Mexico, a common way to decorate altars, graves and public spaces on the Day of the Dead is by making traditional sawdust carpets, called tapetes, which means carpet or rug.
More Mexican Holidays
The Carnaval celebrations in Ajijic, Mexico, last for six days and feature some of the town's most colorful characters, the masked zayacas.
Nearby Chapala celebrates Carnaval for nearly two...
The spirit of revolution is alive & well in Mexico, and celebrated with a national holiday each November 20.
I'll add more to this post later. In the meantime, check out the photos below and then see this photo essay about the
Day of the Dead ofrendas are the centerpiece of the Day of the Dead celebration, one of Mexico's oldest traditions and still an...
In Mexico, where there are more saints (official and unofficial) than days available on the liturgical calendar, every day is a fiesta somewhere in the country. Even the cowboys have their own holiday. El Día del Charro -- the Day of the Cowboy...
Mother's Day in Mexico is probably not like what you're used to wherever you come from. In Mexico, it always falls on May 10 and here in Jalisco, it's sometimes celebrated with games in the community bullrings. Certainly, not everyone observes Mother's Day like this, but as...
Another year of Carnaval celebrations in Ajijic, Mexico, has come and gone, and the masked sayacas along with it. These guys (mostly young men and boys dressed in drag) appear early each year in Ajijic during the town's Carnaval celebrations, which stretch over several weeks...
I had, as always, a blast photographing last month's Day of the Dead celebrations. It can take a lot of effort to energize yourself to spend two days walking for hours on end, taking the bus from town to town, staying up until past midnight...
The spirit of rebellion which formed during the Mexican Revolution, a 10-year affair that ended less than a century ago, still resonates today in modern Mexico. The insurgents who executed the coup are revered now as national heroes, and even the smallest rural town seems...
October 31 – Halloween for most, but here in Ajijic the day is dedicated to the town's patroness, the Virgin of the Rosary. Most incorporated towns in Latin America have a patron saint, as well as an incarnation of the Virgin Mary. Certain...
The Day of the Dead is a misnomer. It doesn't last just a day, but three. November 2 is the main celebration, but the day before is known as Children's Day or Day of the...
I almost always forget that apart from a DSLR camera, I've got a pretty decent video camera in my hands whenever I'm taking photos. But I always feel like I'm missing out on a (potentially) great shot when I'm shooting video, so I rarely do it. Here's a short, shaky video of...
The Day of the Dead altar is at once mysterious and visually legible, a cultural touchstone whose multi-layered symbology can be decoded by a knowledgeable observer.The holiday's indigenous, millennia-old origin has been transformed and molded by centuries of...
La Catrina has become an iconic part of the Day of the Dead since its modern rendition was introduced in 1910 by printmaker José Guadalupe Posada. Each November 2, students from the local preparatory high school in Chapala, Jalisco, set up dozens...
Back in July, my friends Antonieta and Lucio invited me to their hometown in Oaxaca, to photograph the Fiesta de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo or: the Fiesta of the Precious Blood of Christ. The fiesta in Teotitlán del Valle lasts 11 days and features three spectacular...
Sometimes a picture (or series of pictures) can only say so much. Here's a short video of the Carnaval flour fights that go on between kids and masked "zayacas" in Ajijic, Mexico.
This past Tuesday was the Day of the Dead, my fifth in Mexico, and as always it was two beautiful days of traditions and remembrance, during one of Mexico's most famous, and most Mexican, of holidays.
I had an amazing time going from town to town visiting the cemeteries...
Mexico has thousands of towns and cities, and each one usually has its own patron saint and Marian devotion, each with its own unique way of celebrating its Catholic and indigenous history. In San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, we have the Fiesta de Los Panzones.
The...
