Day of the Dead

This is a tile hinging in my spare room that my parents gave me for my birthday a few years ago. 

Día de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday that takes place on November 1st and 2nd to coincide with All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. I don’t remember seeing much about this holiday when I lived in Georgia but here in Southern CA, it seems to be celebrated for a few weeks.  Today is technically Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead and yesterday, November 1st is Día de los Inocentes or Day of the Innocents (children).

I went to MOLAA on their free Target day to see their Día de los Muertos celebration.  Of course, there were lots of booths to buy things. Then they were several altars, one (not pictured) which was for someone’s cat.

Unfortunately, I had so much fun that I pretty much forgot to take pictures.  This was an interesting one about Charles Bukowski. He must of really liked his alcohol and cigarettes as they were featured throughout his altar.

Then I sat down outside (next to children making paper flowers – which is where I got the idea to make these.) There were a whole bunch of traditional dances (including the hat dance.) I wish I had taken more pictures of them as the outfits were phenomenal and there were many dances featuring only children – so cute!

 

Last year, I asked my parents to surprise me with some Day of the Dead items since they were in Mexico during that time. So this year, I created a little Day of the Dead display.

The cross stitch was a birthday surprise for Karen. She picked the design from the Etsy shop Bombastitch and I cross stitched it.  We are still looking for a cool, edgy black frame for it. It’s pretty large and I used a much smaller weave than it called for or it would have been even larger!

 

 

My friend and neighbor, Helgard, always celebrates Dia de los Muertos. She and Karen organized the Day of the Dead skeleton making craft this year and she took us to the MOLAA event. Look how cool her front door is.

Lastly, since the skull or calavera is the main symbol for Day of the Dead, I added a few to my October display in the dining room.