Below is an excerpt from Simon's introduction to our article on Dia De Las Calaberas. A few images (to the right) one might experience were you to see this fascinating celebration. We hope to have a fuller treatment here in the next few months. 

"Day of the Dead is now widely regarded as a Mexican celebration, in no small part due to the large number of articles in general interest and in-flight magazines detailing its history and the festivities that continue to be enacted to the present day.celebrations of this festival. . And yet this celebration, if one believes the printed word, appears to continue no further south. It is as if, lacking the necessary visa, it can only stand at the southern border and stare southward to the countries that lie yonder. Few writers appear to have investigated this region for other traditional festivals associated with this day, for little has emerged in the black and white of the printed page.

And yet there are many. `Día de la Calabera´, or Day of the Skull` is but one example. Has anyone ever heard of this ¿ Does anyone even know which country, let alone the community, which celebrates this ? As in so many traditional festivities there is a public façade and there is the behind-the-scenes activity enacted in households. To truly appreciate these traditional celebrations one has to gain the confidence of the local inhabitants before pushing open the wooden door and stepping into the smoke-stained, dirt floor of the kitchens where so much of the activity is centered. But I'm jumping ahead, if there is a tale to be told, it should be told from the beginning..."

A few of the preliminary images from Dia De Los Calaberas