We made a day of it at the Sheldon Art Gallery's Dia de los Muertos celebration yesterday. Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a centuries-old spiritual tradition which celebrates the continuity of life by honoring the dead on their return to Earth for one day each year.
Sheldon Art Gallery hosted lovely occasion. If you're familiar with the building envision the museum's Great Hall elaborately decorated papier-mache sculptures, masks and papel picados (punched-paper art pieces) hanging from the windows. The occasion was complete with flowers, music, food, families, chatter, and an ofrenda (altar) which was set in one of the shadowy exhibit rooms.
The graveyard picnics and candied skeleton trimmings of the Dia de los Muertos celebration offer some visual continuity with Halloween occasions. But it's a more reverent occasion than Halloween for me. Dia de los Muertos encourages people to speak of the dead as they truly were. The table is set with the departed person's favorite foods, and their vices. Candles illuminate the path the spirit would take to sit at this noisy table of people.
Dia de los Muertos pushes a person past their own fears of mortality. It inspires a person to coquettishly laugh in the face of those fears and throw a big, colorful party with food, music, flowers and (why not?) skeletons. I like the idea that dying is just another part of our living.
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