When my husband was alive he loved playing cards. Starting the Day of the Dead, he began to come back home with three other ghosts. They played cards and drunk beer. I was scared of having dead men in the house. Thanks to my prayers to the Virgin of San Juan and three requiem masses they have rested in peace.

I needed money quickly, and my friend told me that I could earn it right away as a prostitute. I put a provocative dress on and stayed at the corner near the cemetery. But all the clients approaching me were very strange. They all were skeletons. I was so scared. I thank the Virgin of Guadalupe for I got a job in a store so I don’t need to prostitute anymore.

November 1, I went to the bar to drown my pain. There I found myself in the middle of a party of the dead men. They were celebrating being dead. I was terrified when they invite me to drink with them. I entrusted myself to the Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, and she helped me to escape. I promised to not drink alcohol anymore.

Norma Huerta was modeling in lingerie at a cemetery when a dead man grabbed her with his hand. She thanks Saint Martha with this retablo for escaping of this horrible experience and not dying of a heart attack.

Holy Virgin of Esther, thank you for the miracle of delivering me from those horrible nightmares when I saw a couple of living dead with their bony pets.

Acanceh, 1954

The Martinez sisters, Graciela and Alicia, were so beautiful that one day when they were coming back home through the cemetery, the dead men came out their graves and followed the girls flirting with them and giving them compliments. The girls, however, got scared and ran away. But the dead kept following them. So then the sisters prayed to Saint Barbara, and she appeared protecting them from the skeletons. The saint ordered the dead to go back to the cemetery, and the disappointed skeletons walked to their graves. The Martinez sisters thank the saint for this miracle.

I thank Saint Pancras for protection me every November 2, because that night my bar is filled with the souls of the dead of the town. They come very cheerful to celebrate their Feast with music and mezcal.

Filomeno Arriaga
Oaxaca, Mexico

November 2, the brothers Cosme and Basilio Trejo went to the cemetery to drink. There they met a mister sitting on a grave who wanted to give them a chest full of gold so they could continue to go on with their vice. Suddenly, they noticed that it was a dead man who was speaking with them. They implored Saint Benedict for protecting them so nothing bad happened to them. They promised to cut off drinking and to respect the dead.

Oaxaca

Since my boyfriend nor I had a car to go in the country for a picnic, we decided to have it at the cemetery. We ate and talked, but when we saw the dead men leaving their tombs and coming to us, we choked with sandwiches. Only thanks to the Virgin of Zapopan’s protection we were able to run away from the skeletons which almost surrounded us. We thank because we escaped.

It was very late at night when my sister Lourdes and I were coming back from the movies. We were followed by some skeletons in a red car. They asked us to have a ride. We got scared and ran away, because not only they were dead men but also dead drunk. We thank the Blessed Sacrament for we escaped from these ghosts.

My girlfriend Rosa and I went for a walk. When we were passing by the cemetery we saw the dead men also walking around. We got so scared we almost died of fear. We thank the Virgin of Guadalupe for we managed to run away before the dead men would see us and we were saved.

On the night of November 2, I was at the cemetery cleaning some tombs. I got pretty scared when I saw with my own eyes that the dead man, whose tomb I was going to clean, opened up his tomb and got ready to leave. I ask the Virgin of Juquila to protect me and she helped me to escape from there. The next day, I decided I’d better quit that job at the cemetery.

Tomas Cruz, Oaxaca

After leaving the town few years ago, when his bride had died on the way to the church, Roberto Mendival came back, full of memories. Since it was the Day of the Dead, he went to put some flowers on his late beloved one’s grave. He stayed over there till dark, reflecting about how it all could have gone different. Suddenly he heard some noise. He saw the dead men leaving their graves. And his bride Clara, who had turned into a skeleton, was among them. She saw her groom and hugged him. Other skeletons prepared everything for a wedding and were looking for a dead priest to conduct the ceremony. Although Roberto had feelings for his bride, he wasn’t into marrying the dead woman at all. He prayed to the Virgin of Zapopan, and the Virgin hastened the hour of the dawn. With the cockcrowing, the dead men rushed to their graves, and Roberto didn’t have to link his life with a skeleton. He thanks for that.