In English, they are known as marigolds, a reference to European Catholics who placed the flower on altars to the Virgin Mary in place of gold coins. And something with a very strong aroma.”Ĭoronado calls the flowers cempasuchil, an indigenous Nahuatl world from central Mexico meaning “twenty petals.” In Hindu culture, where they adorn altars, wedding guests, and corpses all year long, they’re called genda phool. “To attract them to the material world, you need something bright. “Spirits come from a dark place,” he says. A sickly-sweet smell wafts over the grinning sugar skulls and black-and-white photographs. He hefts a large pot of bobbing golden flowers onto a corner of the altar he has built in the UA Latin American Studies Department. “You can see why they’re called las flores de los muertos,” says Coronado, a Mexican historian at the University of Arizona. Tucson Botanical Garden’s Frida Kahlo exhibit featuring traditional Day of the Dead Marigold flowers. Luckily, he found what he was looking for on sale at Costco. ![]() ![]() Something used around the world to lure the souls of the dead back to earth. Something that brightens altars in homes throughout Latin America and the United States every autumn. Something that represents ancient Aztec legends. ![]() Luis Coronado needed just one thing to complete his altar for el Día de los Muertos.
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