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Dia De Los Muertos: Families Celebrate Day of the Dead
Many celebrate Dia de los Muertos by wearing sugar skull masks or facepaint.
On November 1st and 2nd, many families in Mexico and around the world celebrate Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Not to be confused with Halloween and its costumed troublemakers, tricks, and candy treats on October 31 — Day of the Dead celebrates and honors those who have passed on, as you can see in the photo gallery below, and has ties to the Catholic holidays All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day on the same dates.
Families gather together to pray, visit cemeteries, and attend festivals and parades honoring deceased loved ones and ancestors. Elaborately decorated masks are worn and faces are painted to look like skulls, which the Aztecs believed were symbols that honored the dead and celebrated rebirth. Many homes set up altars or ofrendas — offerings including photographs, candles, paper banners, marigolds, bread, and other symbolic articles to the deceased — to remember and honor the memory of those who have passed on.
Photo credit: Lauren Javier
Do you celebrate Dia de los Muertos?
Read Stephanie’s posts at Strollerderby and her personal blog Adventures in Babywearing.
image source: LuaCheia72
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1 Comment
Susan commented on Nov 02 11 at 10:02 amOn Sunday we took a trip to the National Museum of Mexican Art in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago to see their Dia de Los Muertos exhibit. It was beautiful and the ofrendas were moving, even for the kids. My daughter loved trying to figure out the person being remembered from ‘clues’ displayed in the ofrendas. They bought mini sugar skulls ($3.50) with their own money, saw some other ‘cool’ art, and then we went to La Baguette Panaderia. Where they had hot chocolate with cinnamon in it and chose all sorts of pastries, including beautifully sculpted Pan de Muertos in the shapes of people, faces, and I think a turtle…
The museum admission is free and the bakery averages about .60 per pastry.
Highly recommend this as a day trip to the city with the kids!
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