I have been remiss in not posting about day of the dead--one of the best reasons to visit Mexico in the beginning of November. Near the end of October, you start seeing offerings everywhere--in museums, hotels, parks, restaurants. And of course, on the big day, in the cemeteries. Ofrendas have all the good things your dead loved ones appreciated: corn and candies, tequila and orange soda. A lot of people also cook some delicious dishes for their friends in the afterlife--which is why some offerings start to stink after sitting around for a while--like this one, done by artesans that sell in the market in Coyoacan.
Lots of offerings depict life-size dead people--skeletons, of course--doing all sorts of things. Like painting, with a dead model, too.
Riding dead horses...
Playing music...
And cooking...
Public offerings are sometimes big and intimate at the same time, like this one, to the artist's parents...
But they are almost always big. Here is one of many offerings around the city I saw to Diego Rivera. This one was at Anahuacalli, the museum he built to house his pre-Columbian art...
And finally, in Coyoacan, one for Mercedes Sosa, who died earlier this year. This was my favorite...
This is kind of freaky but really awesome. The one who is cooking is creepy-looking. I definitely would want to go in the winter. I'm such a wimp though. Are any of these scary?
I am a third year law student at Emory University. Right now, I am on a semester exchange at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. I live in a makeshift hut erected on top of a midrise building right on the line that separates Condesa and Roma... It shakes every time a bus goes by.
This is kind of freaky but really awesome. The one who is cooking is creepy-looking. I definitely would want to go in the winter. I'm such a wimp though. Are any of these scary?
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