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The vigil
On the nights of the vigil, families stay in the cemeteries until morning
On the nights of 31 October and 1 November, vigils are held in the town's cemeteries, especially Mictlancihuatl and San Sebastian Martir. Families decorate the tombs with flower petals, candles and ceramic skulls, and stay with food and drink to sustain them. Prayers are said so the souls may return in peace.
The petals
Marigold petals run from each altar out to the street
Altars go up from 30 October, and marigold petals run from them through the house doors to the street. Most altars have three levels, for heaven, purgatory and hell; some have seven, for the Zapotec cosmos. Until 2 November nothing on an altar may be touched, so as not to anger the visiting souls.
The bells
Church bells welcome the souls of children, then say goodbye
On 31 October the church bells ring a chorus called Los Angelitos, the little angels, and copal burns in braziers by the altars. It welcomes the souls of deceased children, who visit until the same hour the next day. On 1 November the bells ring again to bid the children farewell and welcome the adults.
The old cemetery
A procession walks to the old cemetery, built around a chapel begun in 1535
On 31 October a procession with an image of San Sebastian leaves the Church of Santa Elena de la Cruz and winds to the Panteon Antiguo, the old cemetery. The Chapel of San Sebastian there was first built between 1535 and 1555 of adobe, reed and thatch, and rebuilt in green stone in 1657.
The visitors
The town now promotes the vigils to visitors, and the city is pressing in
More than 30,000 tourists came in 2005. Since the 2000s the municipal government has promoted the traditions, partly for tourism and partly to counter foreign influences such as Halloween. Rapid growth around Oaxaca also presses on Monte Albán, where houses built next to it have been expropriated or destroyed.
Day 3, evening
It comes after Santa Maria Atzompa.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán and the Wikipedia article Day of the Dead, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.