The Hoctún Cemetery

In general the image we have of a cementery is of a dark, sadness and lonely place, full of gray tablets, death flowers and sepulchral silence.

An exception of this traditional image of a cemetery, can be find in Hoctún (a town located to 50 kilometers east from Mérida), by its colorful graves, crypts, niches and mausoleums.

To the soft colors are added diverse decorative elements to the graves, from traditional crucifixes, angels and cherubs images to colorful painted flowers, scale replicas of the Chichen Itzá castle, cathedrals towers and even a showy reproduction of the Latinamerican Tower in Mexico city. Contrary to the tradicional thing, the Hoctún Cemetery looks so colorful and original that is worth while to visit it.

The cemetery has two sections, one old and one new. The old one, that exist since 1866, its characterized by the conventional and austere graves. Nevertheless, many pits had already been used again by the deceased relatives or the town authorities, thats why they are as colorful as the majority of the graves in the cemetery. The new section was open in 1962, at the front of the old one.

The cemetery aspect is not limited to its colors diversity or to the grave designs, but to the original decoration. Some figures that are made over the graves had very peculiar designs. The highest is a copy of the Latinoamerican Tower, symbol of Mexico city. It is 2 and a half meters tall.

There are also reproductions of the Chichen Itza castle, some of them painted in diferent colors and others decorated with angels and cherubs images.

An other decorative element on the graves are the reproduction of church towers and domes, six arches reed-maces in three levels, piazzas baroque style and even copies of the typical straw roofs lodges of the region.

At the Hoctún Cemetery you will find a rainbow in each sepuchre, making us feel that the deceaseds are resting happily in peace. It open 24 hours a day.

---