There’s a moment each year in Oaxaca when the city transforms. Markets overflow with mountains of bright orange and yellow flowers, their distinctive scent filling the air. Streets become rivers of color as petals are scattered to form paths leading from cemeteries to homes. This is the season of cempasúchil—the Mexican marigold—the flower that has guided souls back to the world of the living during the Day of the Dead for centuries.
But why, of all flowers, did the marigold become so central to one of Mexico’s most profound cultural celebrations? The answer reveals layers of history, spirituality, and human connection that reach back to pre-Hispanic times.
The Bridge Between Worlds
In late October, in Oaxacan homes, families carefully remove marigold petals from their stems, creating small mountains of orange that will later form pathways. These petals must be loose so they can be properly scattered. The scent and vibrant color are believed to guide ancestors home from the cemetery to the altar, where they’re welcomed.
This separation of flower from stem begins a sacred process repeated in countless homes throughout Mexico as the Day of the Dead approaches.
A Flower With Ancient Roots
The connection between marigolds and honoring the dead predates Spanish colonization. For the Aztecs, the cempasúchil (from the Nahuatl word zempoalxochitl, meaning “twenty flower” for its many petals) was sacred to Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl, the lord and lady of the underworld.
The flower’s golden color was associated with the sun, representing life and death in the cyclical worldview of pre-Hispanic cultures. Its strong scent was believed to attract and guide spirits across the boundary between worlds during ritual ceremonies.
When Spanish missionaries arrived in the 16th century, they merged these traditions with Catholic observances of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, creating the unique cultural blend that evolved into today’s Day of the Dead celebrations.
Traditional healing practices in Mexico have long recognized that the cempasúchil opens pathways—between life and death, between remembrance and presence. Its scent calls to those who have passed, telling them they are still loved, still honored.
The Flower’s Journey
The path of the marigold itself tells a story of cultural connection. While the flower varieties are native to Mexico and were cultivated by indigenous peoples for centuries, the name “marigold” comes from “Mary’s gold,” as European varieties were associated with the Virgin Mary.
Today’s Mexican marigolds (Tagetes erecta) are botanical descendants of those ancient flowers, now cultivated specifically for the Day of the Dead. Farmers throughout Oaxaca and neighboring states dedicate fields to growing these blooms, planning their agricultural year around having abundant marigolds ready for late October.
In the weeks before the celebration, flower markets become a sensory spectacle, with vendors selling marigolds by the armful, bushel, and truckload. Some families buy enough to carpet entire rooms or create elaborate pathways through their homes.
More Than Decoration
In the cemeteries of towns like Santa María Atzompa, as evening approaches on November 1st, families arrive carrying buckets overflowing with marigold petals. With careful attention, they create golden paths from the cemetery entrance to their family graves and the graves outward again—a road for spirits to follow.
The petals are not mere decorations but tools—practical and spiritual. Their scent is believed to be strong enough to cross between worlds, reach departed loved ones, and guide them back for the annual reunion.
The science behind this belief is compelling. The Mexican marigold contains over 50 aromatic compounds, giving it one of the most potent and distinctive scents in the floral world. This intense fragrance creates an olfactory pathway that becomes a bridge between realms in the context of ritual.
The Language of Flowers
On altars throughout Oaxaca, marigolds join a complex symbolism where each element carries meaning:
- Water in clear glass to quench the thirst of traveling spirits
- Salt to purify and preserve the soul
- Candles whose light guides the way
- Favorite foods to nourish and honor
- Pan de muerto (bread of the dead) represents the earth and body
- Sugar skulls inscribed with names of the deceased
- Copal incense whose smoke creates another sensory pathway
Among these elements, the marigold plays perhaps the most active role—not merely representing the journey but facilitating it through scent and color.
Each flower has its voice in the celebration, but the cempasúchil calls loudly enough to be heard in Mictlán (the Aztec underworld). When departed loved ones detect these flowers, they know the path home is open.
The Economics of Remembrance
Cultivating marigolds for the Day of the Dead represents an important economic cycle for many communities. In the mountainous regions outside Oaxaca City, entire villages depend on the annual marigold harvest.
Farm families have grown these flowers for generations, passing down knowledge from parent to child. For them, it is both business and tradition. When farmers plant the seeds, they think of all the altars these flowers will adorn, all the spirits they will guide home.
In recent years, as the Day of the Dead has gained international attention, demand for authentic elements of the celebration has increased. This has created opportunities and challenges for traditional growers, who balance expanded markets with maintaining cultural integrity.
Personal Transformations
For many who experience Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, the marigold becomes a powerful symbol that changes their relationship with grief and remembrance.
Visitors often note how their understanding of death shifts after experiencing the celebration. In many Western cultures, flowers are associated with funerals—something brought once before the connection ends. But seeing how marigolds create an annual connection offers a different perspective on maintaining bonds with deceased loved ones.
Many travelers return home and plant marigolds in their gardens, creating a ritual of remembrance. When the flowers bloom, they connect to those they’ve lost—not with sadness but with beauty and continuity.
A Sensory Memory
There’s something particularly fitting about using scent as the primary means to guide spirits. Of all our senses, smell has the strongest connection to memory, bypassing rational thought to trigger immediate emotional responses. Neuroscientists have documented how scent memories remain vivid long after visual or auditory memories fade.
The scent of cempasúchil can transport people back to childhood, to memories of helping decorate family altars. The aroma collapses time—suddenly, those who are gone feel present again.
This scientific reality underscores the wisdom in the traditional belief. The powerful scent of marigolds does indeed create pathways to those who have passed—through memories, emotions, and shared cultural experiences.
Beyond the Celebration
When the Day of the Dead concludes and altars are dismantled, the petals are gathered with care. Many families take these used petals to flowing water—rivers or streams—where they’re released to carry prayers and messages to the world beyond.
Others incorporate the spent flowers into their home gardens, completing a cycle in which the flowers that honored ancestors return to the soil to nourish new life.
Nothing is wasted in this tradition. The flower serves its purpose for the spirits and then returns to the earth. This cyclical approach mirrors how all life works—in continuous renewal rather than definitive endings.
The Path Continues
Walking through Oaxaca’s central cemetery the morning after the main celebration, the grounds remain carpeted with marigold petals, now slightly faded but still fragrant. Families come to collect personal items from altars, but many leave the flowers in place a little longer.
The path remains open for spirits who might be lingering. Not everyone is ready to say goodbye when the official celebration ends.
This flexibility—this gentle understanding of grief’s timeline—is perhaps one of the most beautiful aspects of how Day of the Dead incorporates the marigold. The flower creates not just a path for spirits but also a path for the living to maintain connections with those they’ve lost, each in their own time and way.
Bringing the Tradition Home
For travelers experiencing Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, the humble marigold often becomes a symbol they carry home in memories and transformed perspectives on remembrance and loss.
Many incorporate elements of this tradition into their own lives, whether by growing marigolds, creating small remembrance altars, or being more intentional about maintaining connections with loved ones who have passed.
Visitors often report that before experiencing Day of the Dead, they felt societal pressure to “move on” from grief. But seeing how death is treated as a change in relationship rather than an ending helps them understand that keeping those connections alive is beautiful.
The Universal Language
What makes the marigold so powerful as a symbol is how it speaks to universal human needs—remembering, connecting, believing that love transcends even death. While the specific traditions of the Day of the Dead are uniquely Mexican, the desire to maintain bonds with those we’ve lost crosses all cultural boundaries.
As dusk falls on November 2nd, Oaxaca glows with the light of thousands of candles, their flames reflected in golden petals that carpet the streets, homes, and gravesites. Families gather around altars and graves, sharing food, music, and stories that keep memories alive.
In these moments, as laughter mingles with tears and the scent of marigolds fills the air, the boundary between remembrance and presence, between past and present, seems to dissolve. The flower has fulfilled its purpose—creating not just a path for spirits but a way for the living to walk alongside those they continue to love across the threshold of death itself.
This is the true magic of the marigold during Day of the Dead—not that it guides spirits back for a single night of remembrance, but that it shows us how love and memory create permanent pathways that neither death nor time can erase.
UnTours offers culturally immersive experiences of Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, with opportunities to participate in traditional marigold path-making alongside local families. Learn more about our 2025 journey.