Decorated skulls from our Dia de los Muertos celebration
Our biggest holiday of the year is Dia de los Muertos. We cook for days and weeks in advance to put on a huge spread of home made red chile, green chile, mole poblano, chile rellenos and other delicacies. Our most intimate friends save the date on their calendars each year and we have special guests or friends who come from greater distances. We spend the first few hours eating and drinking and partying, then use paint and glitter to decorate plaster skulls. Sometimes we also draw with oil pastels on colored paper. I make the blank, kid’s fist-sized skulls each year. This year my friend Paulette came a couple of days early and helped me mold the last dozen or so. She also helped decorate the ofrenda (altar) and the living room with papel cuidado, tradiitonal tissue-paper cut-outs, and bright streamers. I made the five foot high altar a few years ago out of cardboard, foamcore, plaster and acrylic paint, inspired by the painted decorations of Spanish missions in Central Coast California like San Miguel, San Antonio and San Luis Obispo.
Later in the evening we settle down to tell stories about the dear ones we each want to remember. Nearly everyone has brought a picture or memento of loved ones they want to remenber, and placed or tacked them on the altar. The voices are low, the mood is relfective. Everyone listens quietly to each person’s story and sits in silence for a short while until the next person chooses to speak. At the end of the evening we part, exchanging embraces.
This year
