Day of the Dead

Growing up our family was pretty cautious about what we did for Halloween if anything. We went to Fall festivals and local churches for hayrides and games for candy. Because it was 'safer' and we knew that the candy wouldn't have poison or needles in it. We got candy at school and in the evening after begging my super
conservative parents if we could go out trick-or-treating. We were sometimes told yes and quickly made up costumes from scratch and left the house with a pillow case in hand. The boys would go as bums with coffee grounds on their face and a hobo stick and I, the only girl, would be an angel or something light hearted. I remember one year I took a Styrofoam cup and tied a wire to it and colored it pink with a marker and that was my pig nose and made myself into a pig with the help of a pink sweat suit I had just received for my birthday. How sad. We just believed that Halloween was an 'evil' holiday for ghosts,goblins and witches. My parents just didn't want our little minds to be exposed to these concepts and open our minds to evil things. Now, as a child I knew I was being protected from the gore and scariness but I wasn't thinking about the negativity of it all at the time. I just wanted the 2 pounds of candy that would fill my pillowcase and later sort through and organize it all according to chocolate content or pure sugar. The older I got the more I understood that it's a fun night and there really was little harm to us in our suburban neighborhood with our friends or our parents at our side. Since I've had Sally I've been nothing less than ecstatic to get her fancied up on Halloween every year. I've loved getting more and more creative. We don't watch icky shows or movies, she understands that there is a little innocent child behind any scary mask and she's grown to like spiders and witches. That being said we move to Mexico and they just blow our flippin Halloween out of the water!! They not only celebrate 'Halloween' on the 31st of October (well at least in Sally's school they did), they celebrate Dia Del Muerto (Day of the Dead) on November 1 and then keep celebrating through the 4th. They get off of school and work, they decorate their houses, streets, stores and parks. It's a time to honor and remember and pray for the people they've lost in their families. They spend time singing and eating in grave yards with family and friends. They make special breads to eat and place on alters. The alters are everywhere; with incense burning, they have fruits, some are candied, the favorite foods and drinks of the deceased, pictures and fresh flowers in pots and some plucked from the stem and hand placed in rows around the offerings. The flowers are mostly marigolds pink and yellow. During this celebration and reflection of the dead there are a lot of skeletons around. Some were climbing trees.  

Some were decorated

with costumes of sorts and the best of all were the living corps brides in the plaza. They were painted white with their spines painted on and cobwebs drawn on with flowers painted on their eyes, which is how they used to bury the dead. They had very
ornate costumes and hair. It was fascinating how they took so much time do get all dolled up for such a different kind of celebration. Not
just a costume, but a costume with a meaning. The music in the plaza was wonderful, an opera-like singer was singing a song backed by a brass band as the corps brides slowly moved into different poses for pictures. We ate 'pan del muerto' bread of the dead, yummy sweet bread with sugar on top and cream cheese in the middle. There were beautiful drawings on the sidewalks with materials such as beans and colored rice and grains to create an art piece. It was very remarkable. I understand that this day may not be normal for the USA but for here it is tradition going back thousands of years and they take it serious. It's not about the scare or the sorcery or witches. It's about family, walk around with the ones closest to you and spend time remembering ones lost. It actually moved me. It wasn't creepy, it wasn't gross. It was tradition. These people are family and community centered. It was very cool to see the elderly come out just to see the festivities. The church doors were open, the stores were all open late, the plazas were all decorated and the vendors were enjoying the crowds. We had a great time trying to understand all the meanings and traditions. Like I said, this wasn't just a one day thing. It's 4 days of just sitting and walking around the plaza with friends. So we went back for 2 of the days. The first day I let sally wear her costume and went all crazy on the make up. She was already pretty pale in comparison to the the other kids so I skipped the white face paint, but I think she looked pretty cute. We have to realize that it's not for scare factor, it's not superstition, it's a tradition.