People put up altars, sugar skulls, flowers, pictures or paintings of them, and their favorite items. You can have special family meetings if you do not want to go public. Some people honor those lost with chocolates, marigolds (flower of the dead), sweetbreads, sugar skulls and trinkets. Families typically hold offerings such as candles and photographs to remind others. The caricature associated with Día de los Muertos today is based off of La Calavera Catrina, a painting by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada created between 1910 and 1913. La Catrina was a selfish, greedy rich woman who did nothing to help the poor. Many now mock her every year by dressing in ornate garb, painting their faces white and detailing features to look like a caricature of a skeleton. As the most selfish being La Catrina did not have many friends so she moved on and I believe that that is when day of the dead started but it may have been way before that I am not sure but I sure enjoyed learning about this