I

t’s about love. It is not a Mexican Halloween. It is the Day of the Dead.

“It is a time when I feel so close with my late mother. I put her favorite food and drink on the altar and talk with her,” said Mexican Ines Somellera as she pointed to an ofrenda, a seven-layer altar full of colorful flowers, food and personal items.

On the fourth layer lay a black and white picture of a lady in a wedding dress, who was none other than Somellera’s late mother. The ofrenda was decorated with a cross made from bright orange flowers known as cempasuchil.

“We do not mourn during Dia de Muertos [Day of the Dead] [...] we instead honor our time with our late loved ones and the kindness they showed during their lives,” she said, referring to the Day of the Dead that Mexicans around the world celebrate every Nov. 1 until the middle of the month.

Somellera, who was among the attendees at a Day of the Dead celebration in Jakarta on Thursday, said that Mexicans did not normally paint their faces with funny skulls as depicted in the Hollywood animated feature, Coco.

The face painting is a modern take on how many people, particularly those foreign to Mexican traditions, celebrate the Day of the Dead — recognized by UNESCO as a world intangible cultural heritage.

The unengaged saw it as a kind of festival, Somellera said. “Yet, it is good. We are happy that many people get to know more about Mexican traditions.”

The Day of the Dead celebration in Jakarta was held by the Mexican Embassy in collaboration with the Empu Sendok Arts Station (ESAS) in South Jakarta, of which Somellara is a co-founder.

Like Somellara, Mexican Ambassador Armando G. Alvarez also said that a change in tradition was inevitable as cultures were dynamic. He said that traditionally, Mexicans visited and cleaned the graveyards of their loved ones during the celebration, just like Indonesian Muslims do prior to the fasting month of Ramadan.

The envoy said the Day of the Dead had a similar atmosphere to that of Rambu Solo, a funeral ceremony enlivened with dances and offerings in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi.

“Every country has its own way to honor its ancestors. Similar to celebrations in Toraja, [the Day of the Dead] is not sad, it is a celebration of the late ones’ life, a celebration that to date, we feel happy to be with them,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Mexicans currently have a small community in Indonesia comprising nearly 200 people.

Meanwhile, Mexican Deputy Ambassador Gerrardo Serrano said the Day of the Dead celebrations might even take on a humorous tone featuring, among other things, the famous female skeleton La Catrina, created by Mexican illustrator Jose Guadalupe Posada.

“Posada created a character called La Catrina that can be loosely translated to a dapper or elegant skeleton […] but unfortunately for her, she is also dead,” he explained.

“It was originally intended as social satire [depicting the] upper classes of pre-revolutionary Mexico, but over time it has become one of our dearest icons.”