Day of the Dead

I've gotten mixed reaction about Day of the Dead stuff. This is a large acrylic that I painted for my daughter. She will hang this in her pink and black kitchen!!

"The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to the indigenous peoples such as the Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Mexican, Aztec, Maya, P'urhépecha, and Totonac. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors have been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2500–3000 years. In the pre-Hispanic era, it was common to keep skulls as trophies and display them during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth.
The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. The festivities were dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, known as the "Lady of the Dead," corresponding to the modern Catrina." ( thanks Wiklipedia)(see the watercolor sketch i did yesterday, painted from a picture of Catrinas on Wiklipedia)

Many people who actually celebrate this holiday believe that the souls of the dead will have better opportunity to visit the living. So they go to the cemeteries and make altars, take flowers, toys to dead children and talk to and about the dead. It can take a humorous tone as people relate funny stories about their dead relatives.

I know, I know, it sounds very pagan- but think about it. It's just about doing something that all who have lost a loved one wish for - One more day. It's just a people that act out their secret longing to see and talk and remember those that have passed into the other realm. It's my belief that the dead are not coming back until they are called by Someone who owns the dead. And then those of us who lay in cemeteries will have the wildest awakening you can imagine. And the cemeteries will look like Grand Central Station.

But until then, live until you die. And then, my prayer is that you live again.