1.   Building a home altar for the ofrenda is actually pretty easy.

2.   During this period, families invite the spirits of their loved ones to eat favorite foods set out on decorated home altars.

3.   For more than a decade, the Boston artist Dana Salvo has traveled through Mexico to photograph the home altars of its rural citizenry.

4.   In his hands they become like home altars, things that glow in the dark and become objects of veneration amid affliction.

5.   Instead of grand temple sculptures, one found pocket-size metal images cast in a threadlike filigree technique and intended for home altars.

6.   They practice their Buddhism and adore the Dalai Lama, hanging his picture in temples and on home altars.