November 2nd corresponds to the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Death). Don’t freak out though as it is a nice holiday 
The Mexican embassy to Holland organized a Dia de los Muertos event in Rotterdam this past Sunday and so I was very excited about it and dragged my roommate along 
After driving around in Rotterdam for about 1-hr not quite knowing where the place was -my roommate was born in Rotterdam, but we still managed to get lost- we finally arrived fashionably late. We thought that because it was a Mexican event, we could possibly get around being late, but no, we were wrong. The event had started an hour earlier.
Dia de los Muertos is the result of a mixture of indigenous spiritual traditions with Catholic beliefs. This is the day when all the lost ones are remembered. The altar is a very important part of this celebration.
You can put sugar-made skulls, pan de muerto (death bread), fruit, cempasuchil flowers, candles, pictures of the deceased, and their favorite food & drinks (yeah, alcoholic beverages are allowed in the altars too). It is believed that then the deceased comes and enjoys the goodies that you have left on the altar for her/him.
I asked the people there where they had purchased the bread and the food and it turned out that everything was brought in straight from Mexico! Of course I could not help not asking them if it was ok to take some pan de muerto with me LOL! Fortunately, they were very nice and offered me and my roommate more than one piece as they were going to throw everything away once the event was over.
Following the reception, a group of us went out to dinner. Yeah, sadly the celebration did not include Mexican food or drinks… as a student, I was really looking forward to the free food and as a Mexican, I was sooo looking forward to Mexican food. Anyway, dinner at a local restaurant was great! I met very interesting people from Mexico who have been living here for more than 6 years. One of them, a former UNAM professor, has been living here in Holland for 25 years!!!!
Oh, and I almost forget to mention that I ran into a girl who lived in my same dorm back in Berkeley!!! How crazy is that!!! She majored in Chicano studies, so she is very much into the Mexican culture and that is why she attended the event. I just cannot believe how small this world is
They were all lovely people and we have now decided to plan on a trip to the Volkenkunde Museum in Leiden to see the Mayan Exhibit.
