The Day of the Dead celebration is filled with beauty, joy, laughter, and art. It is a celebration where the living and the dead come together. Children and infants are the first to visit (November 1), then after they leave the spirits of the deceased come and enjoy part of the celebration (November 2). Celebrations, as well as customs, vary regionally. Some visit the cemetery and participate in a large community celebration, while others simply clean and decorate the grave of their loved ones without joining the large community celebration. Some celebrations take place during the deceased while others take place at night. But everywhere you look in Mexico, the main part of this celebration is family and privet oriented. Preparing for the Big Day For many, preparing for this big day is part of the celebration itself. Going out, walking from place to place looking at the magnificent items sold for this day fills people with excitement and momentum. Preparations usually begin around October but for some, such as vendors who need to collect goods, preparations may begin earlier. For people in Western culture who preserve everything for as long as possible, it may seem strange to put extreme effort into making a product that will be thrown away and/or destroyed. But for the Mexican people, especially for the indigenous people of Oaxaca, it is not. It is absurd for them to save such items for next year's celebration, so they start from scratch every year. Families on a limited budget don't worry about how big the expenses are to honor their dead; they will get a second job or work things out with the seller, the only thing they really care about is having a beautiful altar and celebration for the returning souls of their family. Or... middle of paper... single-handedly caring for a living person pretending to be a corpse. Locals participate by throwing fruit and flowers while the “corpse” in the coffin smiles casually and loudly shouts “thank you”. In some places this parade takes place differently. A fake body is placed in the coffin and used in place of a living person. Several characters are shown in the show, but all are played by men. Another interesting part of this show is the main bride. Typically someone, often a male, is dressed as a bride and this bride, together with the priest, led the procession. For the villagers, marriage symbolizes the beginning of a new life, just like death. Therefore, the "bride" displayed in this parade is used as an instrument representing death. While these different forms of celebration may seem important, the most important step in this overall holiday is the construction of the altar..