The Day of the Dead or day(s) of the dead start on Sunday and go until Monday in conjunction with All Saints Day & All Souls Day. If you're not completely familiar with this "holiday" it is celebrated by people of Spanish or Mexican decent in which family & friends gather to pray and remember those that they have lost.
I thank God that I haven't lost anyone extremely close to me and haven't had to attend many funerals but five years ago my friend, Lourdes, lost her little brother, whom she was extremely close to. She remembers him often by wearing a pair of his jeans, some of his bracelets, and hanging his art in her house. He was a HUGE loss to her. I can still see in the pain in her eyes when she talks about him.
Lourdes was asked to make an altar for him at the Centro Cultural de la Raza museum in Balboa Park. Of course, it was extremely important to her, so Joseph & I attended the festivities Sunday night.
Lourdes explained to me how every single little thing that she placed on his altar has a specific meaning or representation of who her brother was. The white cross at the bottom made of sea salt has to do with the earth/ground and his connection with it.
You can see his picture there is the back. The skull to the left of it is something that she made after he died. She wrote things about him to describe who he was to her and all the people whose lives he touched.
The museum was decorated with skulls, bright colors, candles, & reminders of others who have passed.
The Virgin Mary is a very important figure in the Latin culture.
Lourdes also placed Clamato, her brother's favorite beer, and freshly made tamales on his altar.
The skull here had a lot of red candle wax all over the face. Lourdes told me that since his death, every year on El Dia de los Muertos, she would burn candles on it and has never cleaned it off.
I also noticed that people were taking shots of Tequila that was on his altar. Lourdes said she had already taken about (6) and invited that I join in to celebrate her brother.
Aside from all the installations, people were dressed up for the occasion, there was face painting, tamales for sale, art for sale, and various cultural dances throughout the night. This was the first year I truly felt connected to this holiday that I always kind of shrugged off. It was a great experience.
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