Day of the Dead

If I waited one month I could claim I was waiting for the six month point before posting this…however, I’ll be daring and post now. Day of the Dead. Pretty much the whole reason we timed this trip to Mexico for when we did. San Miguel was on our short list of places to go already, and when we found that the town REALLY celebrated (yes, it is a celebration) dia de los muertos, then we knew we needed to go there. Something we did not know – not everywhere in Mexico has this celebration tradition. In fact, the large city not far from San Miguel, Queretero, does not celebrate it at all. Nada. We took a short tour there the day before we left Mexico – our tour guide said he didn’t even realize that San Miguel went all out for dias de los muertos! Something new learned.

So, San Miguel has a large expat population and that population has added their own vision to the celebration. I’m sure there are many native Mexicans that don’t appreciate or like these additions, but there were many who certainly entered into the spirit! In 2001 an expat group held a Catrina parade (Catrina/Catrino is the sugar skull style makeup) with eight participants. Now it is a massive parade that is widely enjoyed. Except by us. We didn’t see it. Why? Because somebody – not yours truly – had the dreaded, um, intestinal issues. I’m sure it was an extremely awesome parade😖

The week or so prior to 2 November was a time of preparation. Buildings, parks, streets, businesses all were decorated with marigolds. Why marigolds? Because it is thought that the brilliant color and rich scent attract the souls of the dead and help to lead them back to the world of the living. You might be asking yourself how (or, perhaps, why) do I know this? Because we did one of our favorite things to do in a new location – we hired a guide to teach us. In this case we found a lovely American gentleman, Joseph, who has been living in San Miguel for over 20 years, and has written a small book about the traditions of dia de los muertos, to tell us about the traditions and stories. He did this the best way I can think of – he took us to the main cemetery of San Miguel! It was rather fascinating to see the cemetery about two weeks prior to 2 November, hear about what to expect and then see it all happen!

This display was inside the Fabrica, one of our favorite place for a wander

I had it in my head that it would be fun to have the Catrina makeup done – I did not expect that there would be DOZENS, many dozens of place to have your makeup done! We try to be aware of cultural appropriation and didn’t want to offend anybody. This did not seem to be an issue as most everyone was having makeup done! You could certainly spend a lot of money getting a very elaborate design, or you could be like us and spend about $20 for both of us. It looked fabulous but my face was very unhappy for a few days afterwards. Oh…and don’t sweat.

This is just a small example of the many, many makeup stands. It stretched way down the street, plus 2 other streets!

An example of professional makeup and costume

After we got our makeup done we headed over to the cemetery to see what was happening there. Wow. The street leading to the graveyard was lined with hundreds of vendors selling flowers, food, candy, cleaning supplies – a head spinning array of items for your ancestors! Plus food stands for the living, as this preparation is hard work!

Then the cemetery itself was…wow! First of all, the sheer number of people in there was crazy. There were people painting graves, weeding the grounds, decorating EVERYWHERE, there were priests available to say masses, musicians would play for your family – it was dizzying!!

The masses of people flowing into the cemetery

Showing one part of the niche graves (the least expensive graves). These were just as decorated and loved as the bigger, more elaborate graves

Even graves of people who had no one left to remember them had something

This grave was being repainted prior to being decorated

In the main plaza there were several public altars set up. One was a motorcycle group remembering members who were no longer with us, one was for a beloved local priest, a Rotary group had a altar for past members, another was to honor the victims of a horrible recent accident. Huge groups of people spent hours creating these altars!

The effort and enjoyment of this day was humbling in a way. Why don’t all cultures celebrate their ancestors? Not that I necessarily want them hanging for dinner, but remembering those that have gone before you, who helped form you into the person you are (for good and for bad!) – these are all things to be celebrated.