I’m never really sure about Halloween, death, and cemeteries. That's why for November blogs, I've skipped these topics and acted like we aren’t friends and moved right on to Thanksgiving, pumpkins, and desserts.
But sometimes?
When I feel like a spider web is in my future…
I break out a little orange and black and say, B-O-O!
Let me start by talking about Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead).
I've never experienced the celebration but I have a sparkly Muertos baseball cap, a decorated skull, co-workers from Mexico who would talk to me about it, and I speak a little Spanish. That qualifies me, I suppose?
Instead of being 'day of the dead,' Muertos seems to me more as a three-day party extravaganza.
The celebration starts at midnight on October 31. On November 1, it is believed that the souls of deceased children come down from heaven and reunite with their families. The souls of departed adults visit on November 2.
Would you believe that they arrange a pillow and blanket for each of these loved ones so they can rest after their journey?
Sweetly spooky, don't you think?
Families dress up in macabre skeleton outfits and paint their faces white and decorate with mini papel picados (paper cutouts) and prepare flower-strewn and candle-lit altars. And food! - pan de muerto (a slightly sweet bread specifically made for this time) and skull-shaped candy known as calaveritas.
Festivities continue with a graveside picnic through the night. Folks drink tequila or mezcal, play music, and sometimes stay for a graveyard sleepover.
I like the concept. ¡Es hora de fiesta! It's party time!
No mourning.
No sadness.
Just a gala bash where the living celebrate with the dead.
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