MEXICO’S Day of the Dead is not in the least bit ghoulish, but a day that combines the ancient indigenous beliefs with today’s Catholic Christian ones to honour the deceased.

And while it’s hot on the heels of Halloween, the Day of the Dead is about love not fear. It’s not scary, isn’t a cult and the magnificent altars created in villages and towns in Mexico are for offerings for relatives with their favourite food and drinks and decorations.

For its Day of the Dead celebrations, the Mexican embassy had an altar of bright colours, marigolds, paper flowers, skulls of distinctive luminosity, and a couple of salt shapes for Australia with a kangaroo and a dog. Well, I think it was a dog.

The creator was Mexican artist Joaquin Garcia Quintana, who also created a white mural on the glass doors of the consular offices of the embassy, which he described as a collection of ephemera, while the most famous skeleton of this day, “La Catrina”, in her splendid hat and bejewelled outfit regaled the gathered audience with her beliefs and utterings.

We drank margaritas, ate Mexican food and finished with hot chocolate and Pan De Muertos. This tradition is one to adopt.