31 Days of Halloween: Day of the Dead

REASON NUMBER FOURTEEN: DIA DE LOS MUERTOS 
As a kid growing up and now as an adult Halloween was as much about the new traditions as it was the old. When I was a kid Samhain was about our family remembering loved ones who have died. In Mexico it’s a national holiday. Taking place on November 1 and 2nd in connection with All Saints Day and All Souls Day it is a celebration of the dead. It also happens to coincide with the Aztec belief that the souls of the dead returned to Mexico with the migration of the monarch butterflies each Autumn. I think what is great about the Day of the Dead s how truly joyous it is. There are parades and costumes, sugar skulls and flowers, skeletons and puppets, family altars and visiting the graveside to not only do necessary weeding and such, but to sit up with picnic baskets and music. For me Dia de Los Muertos reminds me of the dummy suppers and the fond memories we had about those before us instead of making the dead scary.

I have never been to a celebration for Dia de Los Muertos but I would like to some day before I too pass from the mortal realm. One thing I am going to do this year though is make some day of the dead calavera or skulls for the house. Michaels also has these great little sugar chocolate skulls molds that I might be so inclined to make and then decorate for the peeps at work. We shall see. I still haven’t finished making my costume yet.