The Day of the Dead in Mexico – Food

Food is considered indispensable for the celebration. The foods offered in the memorial are different according to the wishes and social status of the deceased. Typical foods include: bread, fruits vegetables, and sweets.

Other delicacies available for the celebration are: sugar skulls (bought from the bakeries with the names of each on of the members of the family who are alive and of the deceased), candied fruit and pumpkins, tamales (corn meal with meat or raising wrapped in corn husk) and maize dough cakes, as well as enchiladas and chalupas (thicker corn tortillas with topings).
Beverages, which are placed on the memorial, include: water, coffee, beer, tequila, and atole (corn starch fruit flavoured hot drink, a special drink made from corn meal.)
Depending on how elaborate the display is, it will show the status of the deadest to the neighbours. While the tradition as stayed mostly the same throughout time, the foods have changed. Today, for instances they honour the dead with beer, enchiladas and chocolate, in ancient times it would more likely have been dogs and turkeys.
One thing has remained constant, and that is the use of bread. The custom of having a loaf of bread relates to the early custom in Spain of begging for souls. Some believe that the Spanish technology of bread baking and the identical term used in Spain highly suggests that this tradition was Spanish in introduction. It has been written that the Zapotec Indians (State of Oaxaca) listed, bread for the dead, among their death offerings for the departed souls. It is believed that this ritual dates as early as the colonial period of Mexico