During the Day of the Dead, families also visit the cemetery, where they clean up and decorate the graves of family members. They light candles, pray, and talk. It is a time when, according to the belief, the gates of heaven or what in Aztec mythology is known as Mictlán—a kind of middle ground where most everyone except warriors and mother who die at childbirth go after they die—opens up so the living can spend time with their dead family members. The basic idea is that life is fragile, but is a long, continuing line that does not end with death. As a matter of fact, in Mexico, it is believed a person retains his personality after death, and that he or she is aware, or cognizant until after the final rites have been administered by a priest.
