Day of the Dead

We went to a Day of the Dead celebration at the Palm Springs Art Museum. It was a wonderful Cultural experience. I love going to these events. It reminds me of my Grandmother. The funny thing is that when I brought my mother the masks, paper flowers and other Day of the Dead tokens, she said my Grandmother never participated in the Day of the Dead celebrations. She said she didn't recall ever going to church. She recalled being forced to kneel every night for long hours praying the Ave Maria (She said this with a mimic of a tired facial expression her shoulders coming up and down and letting her head fall from side to side making the falling asleep motion). My mother is a Character now you know were we all get it from.

She went on to say that it was probably because they lived on a Large Ranch several miles out of town and it would take hours to come and go, with 4 girls and no husband, she just wasn't up to doing that, but she had the strength to chase down my Grandfather and yell obscenities at him as he was forced to walk past her house on his way to his own house coming home from work every day, She went on.

The Day of the Dead is a Day to remember our Dead. This should happen all the time, but it doesn't. They are our Ancestors and we need to know where we came from. This is the day that I analyze what I have done with my Genealogy and renew my goals to do more.

It also reminds me that I need to teach my children there culture. The Event was very well organized they had Ancient Dancers:

They had Ballet Folklorico:

They had Mariachi (sorry no pictures, I think we were tired by then and had put the camera away)

Then they had set up different stations were you could do crafts related to the Day. We did the Paper Flowers, the Masks and the Posada Printmaking.

They did a great job of decorating, and asking local artists to build Alters:

I had a wonderful time, I hope my niece and nephew will remember it. It was a hard long day for my sister but I believe well worth the effort. Plus we got to eat Free Pan and Posole.