Pan de muerto

The one food nearly every ofrenda shares. The soft, round loaf is often perfumed with orange blossom, a scent tied to remembering the dead, and topped with strips of dough called canillas, which are most often read as the bones of the dead; another popular telling makes them tears. The little ball in the center is usually the skull, and the round shape itself is linked to the cycle of life and death. None of these readings is universal, so it is fine to tell children that families explain it differently. What matters more is its job on the altar: bread as nourishment for the visiting spirit, the fraternal food you would set out for a friend or a brother.