Halloween's ghouls blend in with Mexico's Day of the Dead ritua

MEXICO CITY -- Maria Ajas normally would be kneeling at the graves of her relatives, lighting candles and laying out their favorite food. Instead, she watched her 6-year-old daughter bob between cars, begging drivers at a stoplight to toss a few coins into a plastic pumpkin.

Halloween customs are mixing with Day of the Dead traditions throughout Latin America, robbing some graves of their marigold-petal decorations and leaving the dead to spend their night on earth alone.

Most Mexicans don't seem to mind the change -- many are happily donning costumes to try trick-or-treating.

At Mexico City's witchcraft market, shoppers crowd a growing number of costume stands, shunning tables that sell Day of the Dead supplies like papier-mache skeletons, sugar skulls and bright orange flowers used in offerings to the dead.

Halloween is especially popular in Mexico's north, where U.S. traditions are often brought by returning migrants. In Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas, television ads urged Mexicans to celebrate Day of the Dead instead of Halloween.

Day of the Dead traditions are stronger in rural, southern states like Oaxaca, where Ajas and her family used to build elaborate altars and spend the early morning hours of Nov. 1 at the graves of dead relatives.

But she and her husband came to Mexico City two weeks ago, looking for work and a better life. With her 8-month-old baby tied to her chest by a shawl, she begged at a busy street corner. A passer-by gave her daughter a plastic pumpkin, and there were no plans to celebrate Day of the Dead.

"We don't have any money," she said.

Ancient harvest ritual

Rooted in the Roman Catholic faith, All Saints Day and All Souls Day are celebrated throughout Latin America, with families picnicking at the graves of loved ones. But the Day of the Dead tradition is strongest in Mexico, where the holiday originated from ancient harvest rituals associated with the Aztec god of the dead.

The Day of the Dead is a celebration of both life and death. Faithful gather in graveyards in hopes of contacting the dead through prayer, song and offerings of food and flowers. Those who died as children are remembered before dawn on Nov. 1 -- All Saints Day -- while the following day -- All Souls Day -- is set aside for those who died as adults.

"It's like a birthday party," Maria del Carmen Vidal said, cleaning her mother's tomb for the feast of tamales and sugarcoated Pan de Muerto, or Bread of the Dead. "It's not something scary like what they have in the United States."

But Halloween, celebrated in Latin American anytime between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, is catching on throughout the region. The children of the wealthy have Halloween parties at McDonald's in Venezuela, while kids in Bolivia roam the streets yelling "dulce truco," Spanish for "trick or treat."