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Day of the Dead: an antidote to America's Halloween sugar rush

 A little girl paints her face to look like a sugar skull for the Día de los Muertos celebration at El Museo del Barrio in New York City. Photograph: Gonzalo Marroquin H alloween – America’s festival of sugar – will undoubtedly be on everyone’s minds on Monday as households across the country get ready to buy enough candy to feed a small village. Parents will return after a long day at the office and prepare to spend their evening awkwardly greeting neighbors as their kids – dressed as Kylo Ren or Iron Man (again) – excitedly wait for more Skittles and 3 Musketeers. But where are the ghosts or the macabre scenes from the past that more genuinely capture the spirit of Halloween? It’s a lament for those who would eschew the lame crop of sexy nurses for a more thoughtful celebration. But what if I told you there is a family-oriented holiday with 3,000 years of divine tradition that has a much deeper connection with the supernatural and the dead? A three-day festival wh...