Last October, I visited Oaxaca, Mexico during the Day of the Dead celebration. This is a Mexican holiday during which families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for food, drink and celebration. This holiday has many traditions and Oaxaca is one of the cities with the most elaborate festivities. The holiday takes place between October 31st and November 2nd. The activities we participated in included:

• Visiting local markets to see the special food and flowers used to commemorate Day of the Dead

• Observing nighttime parades with elaborate costumes

• Seeing altars, “ofrendas”, set up in homes and around the city with flowers, photographs and the favorite food and drinks of departed relatives

• Accompanying our local host to a cemetery to observe the tradition of decorating the graves of loved ones. The cemeteries have a festive atmosphere with families enjoying picnics on their family members’ graves and small bands strolling through.

As moved and fascinated as we were with the Day of the Dead festivities, Oaxaca is a destination in its own right. It is a culinary hot spot with its own distinctive cuisine. Specialties are mole, tamales, Oaxaca cheese, coffee and chocolate. Mezcal, a liquor similar to tequila but smokier and sweeter, is a specialty of Oaxaca and the surrounding area. We visited a craft mezcal distillery to learn about it and the labor-intensive way it is made (roasted on a fire by hand and then crushed by a horse-turned millstone - seriously!). The rows of agave plants as far as the eye could see were stunning.

Oaxaca has a gorgeous pre-Colombian archaeological site, Monte Alban, on a flattened mountaintop with sweeping views of the surrounding valley, rivaling the beauty of the pyramids outside Mexico City. It was a Zapotec capital from 500 BC to 800 AD, comprised of pyramids, temples and tombs. It is not to be missed.

The towns surrounding Oaxaca are known for their folk art/crafts. Each town has its specialty: embroidered clothing, black pottery, green pottery, handwoven and dyed woolen rugs, colorful painted wooden animals, the list goes on. You can visit workshops in each town to watch the artists at work.