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On the other side of the world, this graveyard is one of the most beautiful places I've visited. Rainbow paper picado (cut-out paper flags) are billowing beneath the tree canopies, colour is everywhere. There is life is here.
Performers participate in the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City, last month.Credit:AP
It's late October and Mexico is deep into the festival of El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. In this tradition, which dates back to the Aztecs, the spirit of dead loved ones return to earth once a year to once again join their families.
Today, El Dia de los Muertos is a blend of pre-Hispanic religious rites and Christian feasts. The most important dates are November 1 and 2 - All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day on the Catholic calendar— when families visit cemeteries bringing picnics, drinking mezcal (a local liquor) and playing music through the night.
But the public festivities spread out over weeks leading up to this.
In nearby Oaxaca City, there are days of street parades with brass bands, costumes, dancing and fireworks. The city is flooded with striking orange Marigold flowers thought to help guide the dead back to the land of the living.
Intricate folk art featuring skulls and skeletons, decorate the streets.
The importance of this festival - often wrongly labelled merely a Mexican version of Halloween- shouldn't be understated. In 2008, UNESCO added Dia de los Muertos to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
For the outside observer, it's a deeply touching tradition, far from my Western experience of death and remembrance. Its tenderness and thoughtfulness is touching.
A person carries marigold flowers during Day of the Dead celebrations in Axtla de Terrazas, Mexico.Credit:Bloomberg
And atop the graves, and on the altars inside the homes and shops of locals, are ofrendas - offerings for the visiting dead. A path of flower petals guides the souls to the altar where salt and water are left for them to be cleansed.
Pan de muerto (a slightly sweet bread made during the holiday) is left as sustenance for the tired souls at the end of their long journey from the underworld.
Near a photo of the deceased are always some of their favourite things, for the stranger a hint of what this person was like. Perhaps a toy or favourite piece of clothing for a dead child, or cigarettes, a beer or a bottle of tequila for a jovial uncle.
At the heart of celebrations is a culture that seems less afraid of death, refusing to let their loved ones disappear into faded memories.
Families gather at a cemetery during Day of the Dead celebrations in the town of Cochoapa el Grande, Mexico.Credit:Bloomberg
El Dia de los Muertos strikes at something deeply human. The capacity to find tenderness and peace, even from great pain and loss.
Rachael Dexter is a video journalist and reporter for The Age.