Day of the Dead

La Día de los Muertos or The Day of the Dead--one of the hemisphere's oldest celebrations is rapidly becoming one of San Pedro, California's most celebrated and popular annual events--thanks in no small part to Downtown merchants such as artist Carla Ortega and Our Creations physical store in the heart of old San Pedro.  

First a little history....

Deeply rooted in ancient Meso-American indigenous culture, Day of the Dead originated several millenia prior to the arrival of Spain's Conquistadores.  By the 1500s, the first nations of what we now call Mexico held a month-long celebration of death--presided over by Mictecacihuatl, a goddess who died at birth--since it was only by dying could they be freed from their dream state existence in this world and begin their real lives in the afterworld.
 
Spain, determined to convert the natives of its new colonies to Catholicism, tried at first to stamp out what they considered pagan barbarism.  Unable to kill the Aztecs reverence for their dead, the best the Church could do was assimilate the older tradition, rescheduling Day of the Dead from August to coincide with "All Saint's Day" on the first of November and "All Souls Day" the day after that.  (The night before All Saints--or as the medieval British called it--All Hallows Day is, of course, All Hallows Eve" or our "Halloween".)

Central to the Aztec and other Meso-American peoples' rituals were their use of skulls as symbols of death/rebirth and their belief those whose deaths they honored were there with them, observing the ceremony.. Under the Spanish, real skulls gave way to wooden ones and eventually to skulls made of sugar. 

In rural Mexico, families visit their village cemetaries on Day of the Dead to decorate the graves of their relatives with marigolds and candles.  They may also bring toys and candies for dead children.  Some bring the deceased's  favorite foods and share a meal amongst them and their survivors.   

Elsewhere on Day of the Deadin Mexico and the southwestern US ,  people don wooden skull masks known as calacas and dance in honor of those who've gone before them.  Others build altars dedicated to their loved ones' memories on which they place wooden skulls.   Sugar skull--bearing the names of the deceased--are eaten by friends and relatives.