This year’s event at Hollywood Forever Cemetery will be held on Saturday, October 24 from noon to midnight.
El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), a Mexican celebration, is a day to celebrate and remember those who have departed. On this day in Mexico, the streets near the cemeteries are filled with decorations, flowers, candy calaveras (skeletons and skulls), and parades. This holiday is a spiritual one full of festivities to honor the dead and does not follow the U.S. fascination with Halloween and horror.
It is believed that the spirit of the dead visit their families on October 31 and leave on November 2. To celebrate, families create altars and place offerings of favorite food and drink, bread baked in shapes of skulls and figures, candles, incense. Yellow marigolds and most important a photo of the departed is placed on the altar.
It might sound somewhat morbid, but Mexicans react to death with mourning along with happiness and joy. They look at death with the same fear as any other culture, but there is a difference. They reflect their fear by mocking and living alongside death.
Living alongside death means that Mexicans have learned to accept it within their lives. Death is apparent in everyday life. Death is laughed at in its face. There are sayings, and poems that are popular with day of the dead such as “Death is skinny/weak and she can’t carry me.” Calaveras (skulls) are decorated with bright colors with the name of the departed inscribed on the head. Children carrying yellow marigolds enjoy the processions to the cemetery. At the cemetery, music is played and dances are made to honor the spirits.
Death is a celebration in Mexico and in Los Angeles there is no better example than the Dia de los Muertos at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Aracely Hernandez
