Día de los Muertos

Buenos días! I always have the best intentions...but that darn procrastination gets in the way. So, this holiday (one of my faves) has come and gone - then I thought ... so what, I can still post it, as long as it's before the end of Nov. I just like everything this holiday is about....skeletons, mexican food, tequila, flowers! I love the Spanish and Catholic mix. Oh, and the art - I LUV the art!

Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead
This Mexican holiday focuses on family and friends who gather to pray for and remember those who have died. This ritual is celebrated in Mexico and other parts of the US. Although it has been merged with Catholic theology, it still maintains the basic principles of the Aztec ritual, such as the use of skulls. In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.

"Here the people spend the day in the cemetery," said Esther Cota, the parish secretary at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. "The graves are decorated really pretty by all the people."

In larger cities, families build altars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead.
They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar.

The celebration occurs on Nov 2 in connection with the Catholic holidays: All Saints' Day (Nov 1) and All Souls' Day (Nov 2). Due to occurring shortly after Halloween, the Day of the Dead is sometimes thought to be a similar holiday, although the two are celebrated differently.