Best Hanal Pixán EVER.

Black spirits. Benevolent, white ghosts. Incarnations of horned gods. Three-tiered altars coaxing the dead back to the realm of the living. Stilts, balloons, drummers, plumes of incense, tons of free food. Bees. Saturday, October 31st brought Hanal Pixán, a Mayan celebration of the Day of the Dead, to Mexico.

Merida is known for its Hanal Pixán festivities, and we planned our trip to coincide with the end of October for this reason. The actual Dia de los Muertos occurs on November 1st (for the children) and November 2nd (for the adultos). The local enthusiasm for Halloween turns the whole weekend into an unforgettable festival whose main purpose is to honor and remember those that have passed, and to have a damn good time doing it. We should take a lesson in mourning from Mexico-- a celebration of life and death.

The Grand Plaza, on Friday, was packed with families and workers building at least 60 palm-roofed huts on all sides of the square. We watched this process without the faintest idea of what they signified until we returned on Saturday to the Centro. Hundreds of people packed the square, wandering in and out of the huts to view the altars they contained. We learned that the altars are built in three tiers to lead the dead inside. Each tier contains sweets, fruit, bread, and other things the particular person liked in life (wooden toys for the children, cigarettes for Uncle Marco). The top tier features a cross (to Christianize the holiday), and candles light the way. There are rules the living have to follow, though. No glass, so spirits aren't scared away by their own reflections (though we saw a Corona bottle on a ship-alter) and, to prevent unwanted run-ins with spirits, no hanging out after midnight.

Annie entered one of the altars, along with other visitors, and received a blessing. One of the Mayan men gave her a small yellow stone to stoke the incense, and another brushed palm leaves over her shoulders and legs. I hope this means she'll have good health for the rest of our trip!

Free food was everywhere (this is where the bees came in). We tried the traditional pan of Day of the Dead at our favorite Mexican diner, Los Bisquets Bisquets Obregon. Another important dish that Rosalba introduced us to is Pivi - a cornmeal and chicken pie-like food wrapped in (corn) leaves. The third was Xec, a fruit dish of oranges and jicama with cilantro and hot pepper. Everyone was eager to help us understand what was going on: no sooner did I point to a dish of Xec and ask,"What's that?" that one person explained and another passed us a plate. Though this wasn't the solemn celebration that no doubt takes place in more remote Mayan towns, it was a serious and fascinating display of the tradition that everyone, locals and travellers alike, was thrilled to experience.

We took a break (while everyone in Merida went on siesta) and got some decent pizza at Vito Corleone's. This was a cool little dive, complete with an oven accented in yellow ceramic tiles. At seven, we returned to Santa Lucia, where children and horses were waiting to begin the desfile. Confession: Annie's not really into parades, but this was the coolest exhibit she's ever witnessed. Led by a horned god on stilts, a gathering of (first) black and (then) white ghosts hanted the street. Students dressed as mestizos (common term here) with faces painted like skulls carried candles in a solemn procession. We followed actors and fireworks to the cathedral, where the first theatrical production of the dead was performed. The cast spoke quick, clipped Spanish, and we were only able to get some of the jokes (ex: a large woman joked that she was a fat skeleton), but the songs and costumes were fabulous. Everyone was merry and generous. When Sara tried to get a couple of candles (they were all out), Jorge returned with two just for us. (He actually looked a lot like Sam Baker, Sara's cousin).

Though we weren't saturated with "Thriller" (as all of you must have been), we confess that this is the best Halloween ever.