Cempasúchil Flowers Guide Day of the Dead Spirits

Atlixco, Mexico — Fields of cempasúchil flowers became a visual and sensory spectacle this Friday in the lead-up to the traditional Day of the Dead in Mexico. Producers in the municipality of Atlixco, in Puebla, began cutting the flowers to distribute them to all corners of the country, using them—and their peculiar scent—to call the souls of the departed back to their homes.

The cempasúchil is one of the most important icons of the Day of the Dead, a celebration that combines Indigenous roots, Catholic faith, and popular creativity. In long workdays and with a curved knife, workers cut and select the best flowers, those that are not damaged, as their purpose will be to adorn the offerings or altars where the favorite food and objects of deceased loved ones are placed, honoring their memory this weekend as tradition dictates in the North American country.

Once collected, the flowers are taken to the market, where buyers from different states of the Republic arrive to negotiate for them and immediately load them onto trucks that will transport them across the country during the festivities of November 1 and 2.

Lorenzo Díaz Ortega, a producer from the area, explained this process to EFE, stating that this year more than three hundred hectares of cempasúchil were planted in the region, guaranteeing supply.

"With the entire region, between cempasúchil there are more than 300 hectares; terciopelo (another type of seasonal flower) is around 200 or 250 hectares, so there is quite a lot of flowers that will be sold here in Atlixco as every year," explained the flower grower.

Furthermore, Díaz Ortega mentioned that demand increases each year, as more buyers who take the flower to states in the north and south of the country are added.

"They come from Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tlaxcala; a very strong buyer is Hidalgo, which takes the most flowers, and they have come from Sonora, Zacatecas, Colima, Durango, and Quintana Roo," explained Díaz.

According to data from state authorities, Puebla positioned itself this year as the leader in the production of cempasúchil and terciopelo, accounting for 72 percent of the national production.

This flower, endemic to the country, has a special shape and has about 56 species throughout the territory. However, it does not lose its essence of exhibiting more than twenty petals in yellow, gold, or orange colors, with a penetrating smell that can only be enjoyed in the months of October and November and with a singular lifespan of a maximum of four months.