Crimson & Lemon & Hot Pink

Crimson is the chile negro — the deep vivid cool-red of the dried chilhuacle negro (chile negro, the most important Oaxacan chili pepper for the iconic mole negro sauce) and the ancho chile (a dried poblano pepper, producing a deep crimson-to-brown when dried). The mole negro of Oaxaca (one of the 'Siete Moles' — Seven Moles — of Oaxacan cuisine, the most complex and most symbolically significant of Oaxacan dishes) uses the charred and ground chilhuacle negro as its primary flavor and color element, producing the most deeply dark and most richly flavored of all Mexican sauces. The dried chile negro's color — a deep vivid crimson-to-scarlet when held up to light, almost black-red on the surface — is the most visually striking element of the Oaxacan market display (the Mercado Benito Juárez and the Mercado de Abastos in Oaxaca City are among the most photographically celebrated markets in Mexico specifically for their dramatic chile displays). The Dia de los Muertos ofrenda in Oaxaca always includes cooked food for the returning spirits, and mole negro — the most formally significant Oaxacan dish — is the most important food offering, contributing its deep crimson to the ofrenda's color vocabulary. Lemon is the cempasúchil — the vivid pale-to-vivid lemon-to-orange-yellow of the cempasúchil (marigold — Tagetes erecta — from Nahuatl: cempoalxóchitl, 'twenty-flower' or 'many petals') that is the most essential flower of the Dia de los Muertos tradition. The cempasúchil, native to Mexico and domesticated by the Aztec from wild relatives, is the primary flower offering on every Dia de los Muertos altar — its vivid yellow-to-orange color is said to guide the spirits of the dead from the cemetery to the home altar, and its strong fragrance (one of the most distinctive and most immediately recognizable flower scents in Mexico) helps the spirits navigate. The specific lemon-to-pale-orange of the cempasúchil creates the dominant warm-yellow color of the Dia de los Muertos visual environment — the paths of loose cempasúchil petals from the cemetery to the home, the arches of cempasúchil flowers framing the altar, and the vases of cempasúchil blooms on every ofrenda create the most continuously present warm-yellow of the celebration. Hot Pink is the cresta de gallo — the electric vivid hot-pink of the cresta de gallo (cockscomb — Celosia argentea var. cristata — named 'cock's crest' for the characteristic undulating, velvety flower head resembling a rooster's comb) that is the secondary flower offering on the most elaborate Dia de los Muertos altars. The cresta de gallo's electric vivid hot-pink creates the most dramatically contrasting warm color against the lemon-orange of the cempasúchil, producing the characteristic two-flower warm palette of the Oaxacan ofrenda.