Thursday, November 09, 2006
Dia de Los Muertos
What an amazing experience! Nothing like anything we've seen or done in the US. A weird and wonderful mixture of Pre-Columbian and Catholic ritual with an overlay of Halloween commercialism. In homes, public spaces and yes, cemeteries, families erect displays and altars to honor their dead loved ones, with flowers, candles, photos, statues, favorite foods, tequila... whatever it takes to make the departed spirit comfortable enough to return for a posthumous family reunion of sorts. Many families maintain an all-night vigil at the gravesite -- cooking, singing, drinking and sharing memories. Our photos don't do it justice. Imagine a gaveyard the size of two or three football fields at midnight illuminated by thousands of candles. Campfires burning everywhere. Hundreds of people. Families clustered around graves, laughing, strumming guitars. Children chasing one another. Tourists snapping photos. European film crews doing interviews. One guy, I swear, was throwing marijuana buds on an open fire, presumably to attract the spirit of parties past! And outside the gates? Policemen directing traffic. Tour buses jockeying for position. Taco, hot cider and flower vendors hawking their stuff. Semi-soused young guys peeing in the weeds. And throughout, little kids carrying crude Jack-o-lanterns, begging for pesos. It was a garish, touching, surreal mish-mosh of mourning and celebration. We hope many of you will come down next year and experience it for yourselves.
# posted by goots @ 6:59 AM 
