Dia de los Muertos figurine

A Fun Way to Celebrate Our Dead by da-AL

Posted on by da-AL

Happy Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos!

161030diademuertosw6 161030diademuertosw5 161030diademuertosw4I’ve long admired how Mexicans and Chicanos make the afterlife look amazing; creative, fun, and profound — all at the same time! A dear friend recently visited Peru and returned with this “Calavera Catrina/Lady of the Dead” for me.

161030diademuertosc2My gaze riveted to Catrina’s fun feet, I asked, “What? This is from Peru?!” My friend’s answer took a while to sink in. Dia de los Muertos, it turns out, is celebrated all over the world. Not just in Mexico and Los Angeles!

Here’s a quick definition about how it’s celebrated in Mexico, lifted from a longer Wikipedia explanation.

On October 31, All Hallows Eve, the children make a children’s altar to invite the angelitos (spirits of dead children) to come back for a visit. November 1 is All Saints Day, and the adult spirits will come to visit. November 2 is All Souls Day, when families go to the cemetery to decorate the graves and tombs of their relatives. The three-day fiesta is filled with marigolds, the flowers of the dead; muertos (the bread of the dead); sugar skulls; cardboard skeletons; tissue paper decorations; fruit and nuts; incense, and other traditional foods and decorations.

— Frances Ann Day, Latina and Latino Voices in Literature

Here’s how its celebrated around Los Angeles’ oldest neighborhood, Olvera Street…

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Published by da-AL

Happiness Between Tails speaks to and from the heart. It connects lovers — of pets, authors, books — and of my still-unreleased novels, “Flamenco + the Sitting Cat” and “Tango + the Sitting Cat.” The stories are my love letters to all who fear they're too odd, too damaged, too old, too whatever to find happiness. ContactdaAL@gmail.com • BuyMeACoffee.com/SupportHBT

24 thoughts on “A Fun Way to Celebrate Our Dead by da-AL”

  3. Awww, this sounds amazing… informative for me i was not aware of this kind of celebration happening in world ;)… i love this kind of posts in which i discover new cultures and things 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

            1. I am utterly frustrated with post – am trying to work on it – without boring anyone with details, I am signed on but have yet to use it.

              Hopefully will soon have it figured out.

              Liked by 1 person

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