Hirna Silva raced into a Brooklyn bakery yesterday afternoon, scanning the shelves for pan de muertos. The golden, aromatic loaves, known in English as bread of the dead, are a staple for Dia de los Muertos, the macabre holiday that concludes today. Ms. Silva was late: The sweet loaves, she hurriedly explained, should have been placed on an altar for her deceased loved ones by midday.

A Mexican holiday with Aztec roots dating back 3,000 years, the Day of the Dead is in fact a three-day-long commemoration and celebration of the dead. Last night in Mexico, cemeteries across the country were packed with families spending the entire night at relatives’ graves, picnicking, drinking, and playing music. In New York, where the rapidly growing Mexican community boomed to the fifth largest immigrant group in 2000 from the 17th in 1990, there are few graves to visit and even if there were, cemeteries close by evening.

That has not stopped Dia de Los Muertos from thriving in the city. In thousands of Mexican homes, candles have been burning on altars laden with candles, fruit, yellow flowers, tamales, and bread of the dead. Some Mexican immigrants go to church, others just pray with family members at home – and then eat the offerings.

“It’s kind of a family reunion where God permits the dead to return for two days per year,” an assistant professor of Latin American Art at Bard College, Susan Aberth, said.

Dia de los Muertos is a particularly resilient holiday. When Spaniards arrived in Mexico more than 500 years ago, they tried to eradicate the embracing of the dead. The holiday was melded with Catholic practices, and today’s celebration coincides with All Souls Day.

At Rojas Bakery in Sunset Park, Dia de los Muertos is one of the busiest times of year. Bertha Carrera sat yesterday beneath a shelf full of miniature sugar skulls as customers like Ms. Silva ran in to buy the bread of the dead or the smaller loaves topped with hot pink sugar named “little dead ones.”

Most Mexican New Yorkers who celebrate Dia de los Muertos do so at home. The city’s celebrations are tame compared with those in Los Angeles, where Day of the Dead celebrations have become something of a show of ethnic pride, with a giant parade.

There are indicators that may soon change. New York public libraries are beginning to host celebrations; the Village Halloween Parade now has a Dia de los Muertos contingent, and the advocacy group Asociacion Tepeyac took advantage of the holiday yesterday to call attention to deaths on the border and from recent natural disasters.

Artemio Guerra, a Mexican immigrant who is director of advocacy and organizing for the Fifth Avenue Committee, predicted the holiday will continue to evolve as the Mexican community puts down more roots in the city, concluding, “With time, the tradition will have its own New York City interpretation.”