Day of the Dead

Was it in a James Bond movie that I first saw a Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration?  I think it might have been.  I was curious.  What was with the skulls, the candles, and what seemed to be a macabre ritual entrenched in darkness?  Were they celebrating death?  Mocking death?  Honoring death?  I decided to shrug it off as an event that occurs far from me.  I lived in Nebraska at the time.

Then I moved to California.  It seemed that everywhere I'd turn, and especially this time of year, I'd come upon brightly painted artwork and trinkets with marigolds, skeleton couples, guitar-playing skeletons, skeleton animals, and even images of Marilyn Monroe or Michael Jackson with halves of their faces painted with skull bones, spider webs, and roses.  The Dia de Los Muertos festivities weren't only in the movies, and they were certainly no longer far from me.

Hugo's family originated in Mexico, and although he and his siblings haven't held onto every Mexican tradition and cultural lifestyle, they are all very artistic and the artwork of this festival has always captured their attention.  Was it as  dark and macabre as I feared?

The inner reporter in me awakened, as did that part of me who is always taking a second look at just about everything I deemed evil, or wrong in my earlier life as a Christian with legalistic leanings.  Is this festival as wrong as I wrote it off to be?

The Dia de Los Muertos originated in Mexico, and can be traced to Aztec tradition as far back as 3,000 years ago.  More recently, with the introduction of Catholicism in Mexico, it has been linked to All Saints Day.

Today, the Dia de Los Muertos celebration begins November 1, and it is on this day that the departed infants and children are remembered.  On November 2, the adults who have passed on and are missed are remembered.  Not worshipped, not conjured.  Remembered.

Some might take things to a place contrary to my beliefs, but no differently than the fact that there are some who take Halloween to grotesque and evil places contrary to my beliefs.  Yet to me, Halloween is a fun day to dress up in costume and enjoy a cultural holiday with few, if any, stresses attached.  Nothing more.  Could the Dia de Los Muertos be as simple?

We had a local Dia de Los Muertos event over the weekend, one we learned of through a flyer sent home in Lee's homework folder.  He recognized the artwork on the flyer as the type of thing he had seen before when we have enjoyed days or nights of shopping at the beach or city villages.  He was interested, Hugo was excited, and I was in.  I wanted to experience this festival, once and for all.

So Hugo painted Lee and himself up.

The Copali Copili Aztec Dancers mesmerized a crowd of hundreds with ancient Aztec dance that illustrated the heart of a people longing for meaning and legacy.  In their dance, they acknowledged the Creator as being all-powerful, and they saw Death as a foe.  During the Dance of the Dead an angel takes the deceased warrior to the Afterlife.

There was an area set up for kids to create jewelry and their own Dia de Los Muertos works of art.  Lee made a necklace, and he and Hugo made masks.

Lee's mask is the abstract one on the right.

 With our Dia de Los Muertos Festival being the weekend before Halloween, we saw quite a few people at the event dressed in their Halloween costumes.  The Witch King from Lord of the Rings was there.  Lee had me hunt him down so that he could have his picture taken with him.  The dad under the mask was thrilled that there was someone there who actually knew who he was dressed as.

We had a beautiful moon that night, and Lee had fun playing with it in pictures.

A sidewalk was lined with cool quotes from famous people, not all of them dead.

Not once in the night did we see any sign of disrespect.  Alters set up for the departed were memorials, and there were many set up for the famous, as well as for family members and friends.  There were moments of solemnity, and I saw a few tears, but for the most part it was a respectful and joyous family event celebrating life.

We decided the night need to be capped off with some McDonald's.  Lee had taken so many pictures with the moon, that he struck his familiar pose.

To witness a tradition that has long been held within the culture of a people who are craving significance and meaning in life no differently from that of the culture in which I was raised, left me humbled and realizing that the world is indeed a very small place.  I am so grateful for my new found ability to step outside of that which has been deemed normal to my existence, and allow myself to enjoy what is normal to others.