While the rest of the world celebrates Halloween, Italy commemorates its lost ones. November 1 is Ogni Santi, All Saint’s Day. November 2 is Commemorazione dei Defunti, or All Soul’s Day.

As in many other Catholic communities, visiting your loved ones at the cemetery is expected. Most Italians live and die in the same town they were born in, so when you  visit, you find generations of your family.

Older cemeteries are filled with beautiful monuments, like the photo above, which I took in Puglia. There are large tombs and private mausoleums, also owned by wealthier families. Ordinary people have small plots in the ground, where they are left for 10 years, then their bodies are removed, cremated, and put into smaller wall tombs, usually with their photos and dates on the tombstone.

When Andrea’s mom was moved from the plot in the ground to her smaller wall tomb with her husband, we removed the marker he had and replaced a lovely photo of them together walking in Florence, and created a double marker for them both.

Florists have shops located right at the cemetery to leave fresh flowers.

I like the Mexican tradition of creating altars in the home to celebrate and remember lost loved ones and then parties at the cemetery.

Having lost most of my family when I was young, I prefer to celebrate instead of mourn, but that is almost impossible. I wrote a little something about funerals on my blog.

In America, I don’t go to the cemetery to visit family. Do you? Here in Italy, I go with my husband to visit his mom, dad, and relatives and hear stories about his memories.

In Sicily, I found a lovely tradition where dead relatives come to visit and leave sugar statues under your bed. It’s much like the Mexican sugar skulls but in fun figures.

There are also many sweets, such as Ossi di morti, bones of the dead, in various regions of Italy. These are usually a variation of ground nuts and egg whites with flour, often shaped like bones and crunchy.

Halloween has slowly started being celebrated in Italy as well. It’s mostly for the kids to dress up and have a party. I haven’t seen door-to-door trick-or-treating, but Italians love a good holiday and a party.