Q. Dear Rabbi; As you probably well know, in Mexico instead of Halloween, people celebrate the next day the "Dia de los Muertos" or the Day of Dead, which is remarkably different. Often candles, flowers and the favorite foods of the deceased are placed on the grave and the family visits the cemetery, eats, sings and tells favorite stories about those who have passed.
Across my office in Mexico City there is a beautiful park that surrounds the tallest triumphal arch in the world, (225 f. tall), which is the Monument to the Revolution. In it are buried a number of leaders and heroes of the last revolution.
I usually take a break and eat my lunch right there and often leave behind some food for poor people with small children that abound there and promptly collect it. My question is, can I do that also on that Day of the Dead or will I be transgressing the "Chukot Hagoyim" prohibition of following their traditions?
A. As far as I remember, the mausoleum housing the graves is distributed and inside the four gigantic stone legs of the monument, so the graves are not actually exposed as they are in a common cemetery.
Taking that into account and the fact that you can leave the food a bit separated from them, the opinion of Horav Shlomo Miller's Shlit'a, is that it is permitted, since after all the food is left for an important and commendable reason.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as advised by Horav Shlomo Miller and Horav Aharon Miller Shlit'a
Important Numbers
