The flower that marks the road. Cempasúchil comes from the Nahuatl cempōhualxōchitl, "flower of twenty petals". Harvested at the end of October, it is the flower of the Mexican dead, and without it an ofrenda is not finished.
What it is for. The yellow stands for the sun. Scattered in a path, the petals tell the souls which way to come: from the street to the door, from the door to the altar. The scent is as much a part of the signal as the colour — sharp, resinous and unmistakable. Tradition holds that the flowers were first used this way at Malinalco, where tombs were dressed with small yellow blooms believed to hold the warmth of the sun in their corollas; the Mexica took up the custom, and it became the altar flower.
The legend of Xóchitl and Huitzilin. Two lovers who climbed the mountain each afternoon to bring flowers to Tonatiuh, the sun, swearing before him to love each other beyond death. War came and Huitzilin was killed. Xóchitl asked Tonatiuh to unite her with her love, and with one of his rays he turned her into a flower. Huitzilin returned as a hummingbird and settled at its centre, and the flower opened into twenty petals.
Where to see and buy them. The Mercado de Jamaica, the city's flower market, in the last ten days of October — aisle after aisle of nothing but orange, and the single best photograph of the season. The fields themselves are in Xochimilco and Tláhuac, at their peak in the same fortnight.
Practical notes. Jamaica opens very early and is at its best before eight in the morning. Carry cash and small change, and expect to haggle if you buy by the bunch.
in the morning or in the evening
Guillermo Prieto 45, Magdalena Mixhuca, Jamaica. 15800
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