IRVING, Texas — "It smells like home," said Odette Orduno, owner of El Sol Panaderia in Irving.
There's a constant line at her store year round, but the weeks before Día de Los Muertos are some of the busiest.
"Pan de muerto is a very, very traditional bread," said Orduno.
In just a few weeks, they sell about 5,000 of these specific pastries.
The history of pan de muerto dates back to the 1500s, and is often placed on a Día de Los Muertos altar as an offering to deceased loved ones.
Every part of the bread has symbolism. Orduno describes that the roundness represents the cycle of life. The ridged dough placed across the bread, to some, symbolizes the bones of their descendants. To others, it symbolizes tears of the descendants. Then a round ball is placed on top to represent the skull or the heart.
Once the dough is rolled and formed, it's wiped with egg wash and sprinkled with sugar or sesame seeds, in reference to the ashes of loved ones gone.
"Bakers get here at 4:00 in the morning to start preparing everything. We make everything from scratch," said Orduno.
At El Sol Panaderia, they use simple ingredients like flour, sugar, water and cinnamon. "It's just pure Mexican traditional bread."