Dias de los Muertos, otherwise known as Day of the Dead began yesterday and goes through November 2 coinciding with the Christian celebrations of All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. The weekend parade in Mexico City was led by a gigantic raised fist made with helmets, pick-axes and rubble. You may recall the raised fist was used by rescuers as a sign requesting silence so they could hear if anyone was trapped under the rubble from September’s devastating earthquakes and pays tribute to the rescuers as well as the victims. It seems like a powerful statement to open the festival this year.
If you follow us on Facebook, you may have noticed some images from a recent visit to the Denver Botanic Gardens commemorating the festival. While generally associated with Central and South America, Day of the Dead is fast becoming a staple in Halloween celebrations in the US. It also celebrated in Europe, the Philippines, and even some cities in Australia, Fiji and Indonesia and it seems there’s a whole cottage industry dedicated to make-up and costumes. I even noticed a number of trick-or-treaters in full Day of the Dead garb around my ‘hood.
How was your Halloween? Is Day of the Dead a big deal in your neck of the woods?
Live, love, bark! ❤︎
I never knew what the day of the dead was, thanks for explaining. Very cool photos
Funny – my husband was asking me last night if All Saints and All Souls ever meant anything to me. Back in Italy, both days are holidays so that is what it meant to me: staying home from work or school. As to honoring the dead with a visit to the cemetery, which is traditional, I can’t say I ever did that.
All Saints Day was a holy day of obligation so me and my siblings were ushered off to mass. I think we referred to this time as ‘entering the every-other-week holiday season with obligatory mass attendance’ in addition to Sundays. For kids, not the best time of year until Christmas, of course.
Those are some spooky cool bones! Thanks for joining the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
As you’d expect, Dios de Los Muertos is a big deal in these parts. The Alpha Japanese Female says the holiday was established to memorialize my activity level when presented with a list of chores around the house. snorf.
Ha! So long as you get the appropriate brew reward. Yeah, it’s a big deal here too, I suspect more so for areas with a large Hispanic population as opposed to hedge fund managers in NYC or Jersey. 😉
It was colder than usual this Halloween, which seemed to limit the kids… which also means I have lots of candy left over if anyone wants it….
Take it into work. I find colleagues universally try to help out their fellow workers and devour excess candy. One of the few times I actually miss working. LOL
Great photos from the gardens!!!! Our Halloween was non-existent. We’ve never had a trick or treater in almost two decades that we’ve lived here. From your last comment, I’m glad that we live in the sticks! Actually, costumes and loud kids scare the heck out of Shyla so I must remember every year NOT to take her to town on this date 🙂
So jealous of your peace and quiet. Around the Ranch, the only holiday we abhor is July 4th for obvious reasons. Life int he city can be very noisy and very stressful for rescues as well as the grounded.
Oh, I dig Day of the Dead. I even have a “sugar skull” purse that I love. DotD is a big deal here, since we have out “Old Town” in San Diego which has a lot of Mexican influence. Would love to be in Mexico some day for the “real” DotD.
Oh gosh, I had forgotten about Old Town (which I loved when I lived in SD 87 years ago)! I can only imagine how big and fun the celebration is your way. Yes, DotD in Mexico must be a little like Carnaval in Rio!
Happy day of the dead!
We only got 8 trick or treaters – 4 grandkids and 4 of the nieces kids. Mabel has her Day of the Dead bandana
How fun to have a DotD bandana. I’ll have to look for some fabric and make a couple for the pups! Sounds like howliween was pawfect in your neck of the woods. The advantages of living away from big city neighborhoods.
We didn’t see any day of the dead around here. We just had a ninja turtle and a tiny little pumpkin. But then we live in the country. Grandpa carved a pumpkin for ninja and we got to spoil Amelia while he went trick or treating.
We grew lots of pumpkins and we’re toasting the seeds. We are looking for your homemade treat recipes. 🎃
Sounds like you had a nice and uneventful Howliween. Holler if you don’t find the recipes. I’ve had multiple posts and there’s a tab called Bone Appétit at the top of the header. 😊
Thanks. I was hoping for a side link.
Our Halloween was busy, but not because it was Halloween. We humans just had a lot going on. Shadow and Ducky enjoyed some playtime with their sitter while we were out so at least they had some fun.
Hope things on your end are good. Glad the girls were able to enjoy some extra fun.
All good so far.
Happy to hear that!
I wasn’t very familiar with Day of the Dead celebrations until the last few years when my daughter started studying it (and bringing home various craft projects) in Spanish class. It think it is very interesting and although we personally don’t celebrate it, I would still like to learn more.
It certainly is quite the show and a nice break from the typical ghoulish gore of Howliween. Thanks for swinging by the Ranch. We 💖 visitors.
I don’t think Day of the Dead is that big in my area..at least I’ve never seen anyone dressed up like that. We didn’t go out at all last night, I was too scared of those loud bang bang noises! 🙁
Staying indoors where it’s quiet is always a good plan. Bonus…there usually are no zombies. 😁
True!!! I don’t know what I would do if I saw a zombie!
The church where I work had almost 400 for their Trunk or Treat and Fall Festival last Saturday, even in the cold. Last night I secured Lucy and Riley in “Riley’s” bedroom where they happily snoozed on Andrew’s bed, oblivious to Halloween. In my arms, Xena, also happily, helped me give out candy to groups of Trick or Treaters. We got through most of the candy Jeff brought home from work that no one else wanted (evil man), and I am returning the unopened bags I bought. 🙂
There were a bunch of parties/festivals and public get-together for trick-or-treaters over the weekend and in the past, that never seemed to stop a handful of little ghouls and ghosts. Would’t be so bad if they all arrived at the same time (thereby only having one obnoxious doorbell reaction from the dogs) but instead they would spread it out over the entire night. 😬 Last night only two showed up and the dogs didn’t go too nuts and paid attention to commands. Maybe all the practice on our walks are paying off? 😇
If I want Day of the Dead, I make a visit to Sun City.
😆
Great photos! Since our neck of the woods literally is the woods and we’ll off any beaten neighborhood path we saw n signs of Halloween. If you count non humans then we did have one trick or treater – the black tailed deer we call Linus took a break fro rutting (!) and came around looking for his handout. The scariest thing we saw was the hated Dodgers win to force a game 7 in the WS. As a SF Giants fan who bleeds orange and black the Dodgers winning the series is not acceptable. 🙃 Happy November.
Linus?! That is just hilarious! Like you, I was saddened by the Dodger win. Not because I’m any kind of Giants fan but because I’d love to see Houston have something joyous to celebrate. It was a tough summer and I think the city could use a ‘win.’ It’d been nice having a fresh face win (like last year) but sadly I don’t think that’ll happen this year now. 😢
Linus because his partner in crime who is usually with him is a little bigger and older and we call him Charlie Brown ( I give everybody and everything nick names – it sometimes drives Holly (Hollis Marie) nuts 🙂 And you bring up an even better reason for Houston to win. I’m not liking a game 7 in LA but am hopeful that Houston can close the deal and take the trophy home (until next year when SF comes roaring back…)
😍 Love your nicknames. It’s especially fun to identify the neighborhood wild critters (and some of the ‘unusual’ neighbors we don’t know) here too. SF can win next year because we both know the horrid Rockies will not be in any way shape or form competitive. LOL
I kept the lights off. I am the Scrooge of Halloween
No worse than me. I never turn the porch light on anyway since there are a string of lights that come on at sunset to give the house some appearance people are there. One intrepid pair of youngsters showed up and surprisingly, the dogs didn’t lose their mind. Elsa was particularly well behaved. Whew…dodged a bullet there!
They trick or treated in our town on Saturday, when we were out at Notre Dame for football, so we missed it! I have no report for you, sadly.
Surprisingly, the door bell only rang once. I’m not sure what is worse, having a jillion trick or treaters or 5 lbs. of left over candy? LOL
Ha! I’ll go with the jillion trick or treaters as worse – at least there is a chance (a VERY slim chance) that I take the candy and donate it to someone in need. The crazy trick or treat days are not fun!
Around here the few little children that live in this area go round the houses (with parents) “trick or treating” in the early evening. The rest of the night the students are running around drunk, shouting until the early hours. Needless to say I prefer the children’s version of Halloween.
Looks like the multiple public parties at churches, schools and business district handed out enough tricks to treaters. Now to figure out what to do with the 5 lbs. bag of leftover candy now that I’m not working. In the past, it was easy to bring it into work. Work colleagues will eat ANYTHING. LOL
That’s quite a problem!
Ours was GREAT! Mark thought he is super smart and passed the weim-guarding to me… and then he had to run like paavo nurmi while the pup slept like a log on the couch… what a relaxing evening… for me
Now that is just rich! Glad you were able to enjoy a relaxing evening and Phenny was no worse for the wear.
No nothing in this here hood. Indeed, we barely acknowledge Halloween.
Trust me…you didn’t miss anything. It has evolved into too much hooligan-ry for adults anymore. A number of neighbors had loud parties over the weekend. Luckily last night wasn’t crazy at all. Yay!