Following the Sept. 11 attacks, many Mainers were focused on their state’s northern border with Canada. But this week, a unique cultural exchange will occur between the Pine Tree State and the United States’ southern neighbors in Mexico.

Today, an ancient Mexican festival – El dia de los muertos, or “The Day of the Dead” – will be observed at the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine. In keeping with this pre-Hispanic tradition of honoring the dead, students and organizers will erect an altar with bright marigolds and lit candles, as well as memorabilia – photos, packs of cigarettes, a bottle of mescal – of deceased loved ones. As part of the ritual, participants will set out pan de los muertos, or “dead bread,” and calaveras de dulces, or “sugar skulls.” While incense burns, they will wait for their lost ones to be lured to visit from the dead.

Despite the discomfort most of us may feel regarding rituals about death, the Day of the Dead is not a morbid event in Mexico. It is a celebration combining Aztec and Catholic beliefs about resurrection and rebirth.

“The Aztecs looked at life as a spiraling, and death as a porthole to another existence,” said Angel Loredo, associate dean of students and community life at UM, and the event organizer. “The altar is colorful because it marks a time to remember ancestors not as they have died but as they have lived colorfully. On this day, the ancestors come back. It’s not a morbid thing. You have a sense of remembering events that they shared with you. Even in the Judeo-Christian experience, to remember is to relive. You are cherishing the life, not the death.”

As part of the daytime activities, which are free and open to the public, people will be served fresh fruit, hot chocolate, rice pudding with raisins, and bread. Eunice Loredo, a native of Mexico and a Spanish teacher at Mount View High School in Thorndike, will speak about the festival, the altar and traditional food.

The altar will remain in place throughout the evening when the Maine Center for the Arts presents the Ballet Gran Folklorico de Mexico, one of the leading exponents of traditional and authentic Mexican culture. (Tickets may still be purchased at the MCA box office.)

“We bring culture from the time of the Aztec to the present time,” said Theo Shanab, founder and director of the Mexico City-based dance company. “Most of these dances are done in villages during saint’s days, and we go to those villages and listen to music and adapt what we see and hear to the stage. When people go to the show, what they will see is the culture of Mexico and the warmth of the people of Mexico.”

The combination of the day’s events is not only a concentrated encounter with another culture, but a complement to the permanent collection of west Mexican tomb figures – the largest collection in the United States – on display at the Hudson Museum, said Stephen Whittington, director of the museum.

“Having the Ballet Gran Folklorico here on the Day of the Dead is perfect,” he said. “The 250 objects from Mexico and surrounding countries in Central America span from 1500 B.C. to around the Spanish Conquest.”

Whittington added that the daylong celebration of Mexican culture and arts could potentially lead to a sensitive understanding of current events, too.

“With what’s going on in the world right now, we’re all concerned about the permeability of our borders,” he said. “But there’s also the North American Free Trade Agreement, and Mexico is one of our two direct neighbors. It’s important to learn about our neighbors so we can have an understanding of world events. In Maine, there’s a population of Mexican migrant laborers. So it behooves people to know about their neighbors right here in their state.”

The Day of the Dead festival will begin 1 p.m. today at the Hudson Museum in the Maine Center for the Arts. For information, call 581-1405. Ballet Gran Folklorico de Mexico will perform 7 p.m. tonight at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. For tickets, call 581-1755.