The festival of ancestors is celebrated all around the world in honor of the deceased with whom people wish to reconnect, whether with offerings, skulls, colorful festivals or meals ... 

In Mexico, do not imagine the Dia de los muertos as a sober and solemn procession; you will need to dress up, using the whole range of colors, and there will be a lot to feast on! On November 2nd, the day after All Saints', Mexicans get ready to welcome the their dead by building altars with several levels, including: portraits and personal belongings of the deceased, lit candles representing the path that the ghost must follow to reach the altar, bouquets of carnation symbolizing the sun and thus the origin of the universe, the papel picado ("paper mache") with geometric patterns, the copal ("incense") referring to the passage of the life to death, and finally the calaveras: skulls in the form of sweet treats, with the name of the deceased written on it.

This Mexican poem well describes this mysterious atmosphere:

"Here comes the water
by the hillside,
and my skull
gets wet.
The skeleton death,
neither fat, nor lean,
homemade death
is glued to wax."

In Europe, it is the living who visit the dead around sacred places. The Cimitero delle Fontanelle covered graveyard of Naples, Italy, houses more than 8 million bones, the oldest of which date from the plague epidemic of 1656. The ritual says that every citizen can "adopt" a lost skull (capuzzella) in exchange of its protection: people may caress it, polish it, and above all build an altar in its honor composed of candles, rosaries and dry flowers, so that the skull protects its godfather in her or his most difficult challenges. If the prayers are satisfied, the skull will be entitled to an even more sumptuous altar!