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Bright yellow cempasúchil flowers glow in the morning sunlight in San Pedro Cholula, Puebla, Mexico.
October 13, 2026 | Flowers That Guide the Dead
Cempasúchil flowers (Tagetes erecta) bloom at sunrise in San Pedro Cholula, Mexico. The flowers are traditionally believed by the Mexican people to guide the souls of the dead back from Mictlán, the Aztec underworld, to their families during Día de los Muertos. The bloom is made up of a dense, abundant cluster of countless tiny petals, reflected in its Nahuatl name, cempoalxóchitl, which means “many flowers.”
