Halloween and the Day of the Dead

 

Ah, Halloween is upon us. Here in LA, we celebrate Halloween with a vengeance. From bank tellers dressed like hatchet murders, to little kiddies extorting candy, to one of the largest street festivals in the world, we all get in on it. At the same time in Mexico, we celebrate the Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead is actually a three day event that has been held for over 3,000 years. While the current celebration is associated with Catholicism, it was co-opted from the indigenous people who celebrated the festival long before the Spanish arrived.

The big Los Angeles Halloween celebration is in West Hollywood.

A  little Day of the Dead action in Weho

West Hollywood is a very small city roughly between Sunset
Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard bounded by Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. There are lots of celebrities, expensive stores, and really cool cars. I like to hang out there with friends and enjoy the scene.

My friend Ken and his
wife Lisa at their restaurant “Pump”

 Every year the city hosts the party, and shuts down a big piece of Santa Monica Boulevard from La Cienga to Doheny. There are lots of bars and restaurants in the area that back
up the party in the street. The suggested “adults only” event is actually like a parade of partiers moving between the entertainment stages while ogling each other. It is a big event. On the years that Halloween falls on a weeknight,
250,000 people show up, and on the weekend Halloweens half a million folks party
till the wee hours. It is always a good time.

Gotta love Weho

The Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico is divided into
three parts or days: All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day. “The Day of the Dead is a day of connection, remembrance and love — for and with — those who have died (‘the ancestors’),” said Kristin Norget, author of Days of
Death, Days of Life: Ritual in the Popular Culture of Oaxaca.         

Rather than treating it as something dark and frightening, the Day of the Dead is largely about laughing in the face of death, as represented by the ubiquitous skulls and skeletons known as calaveras and Catrinas, which are often depicted
dancing or playing music. And though it is about remembering lost loved ones,
the holiday is more a time to celebrate their memories than to mourn their
loss. 

For the three days of the celebration people across Mexico clean relatives’ graves and decorate them with bright flowers (typically marigolds) candles and things the deceased loved in life (food, coffee, alcohol and tobacco are common). They stay
overnight in the cemetery and hold a vigil at their loved one’s grave.

All Hallows Eve, Mexico

I read this macabre description from a famous passage about the Day of the Dead by Mexican author, and Nobel Laureate, Octavio Paz in his 1950 work, The Labyrinth of Solitude.

“The word death is not pronounced in New York, in Paris, in London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it; it is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love.

It is natural, even desirable, to die, and the sooner the better. We kill because life —our own or another’s — is of no value. Life and death are inseparable, and when the former lacks meaning, the latter becomes equally meaningless. Mexican death is the
mirror of Mexican life.” 

That’s heavy. And this from Stanley Brandes, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley,”For Mexicans, foreigners, and peoples of Mexican descent, the holiday has come to symbolize Mexico and Mexicaness. It is a key symbol of national identity.” 

However you celebrate be safe and have a great time.

Love, love