Last night, when I logged onto Second Life, I planned on enjoying the last night of Halloween there and then today posting a picture of the circling nuns of Everlong I talked about in this post to celebrate the beginning of "Allhallowtide" which is when many western cultures celebrate their dead ancestors.
Think about it- the Catholic Church has All Souls and and All Saints right now.
And in many Latin American cultures, it is El Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead.
My bestie and I were talking about All Souls and the Day of the Dead and so instead of partying down in pumpkin town we went instead to the great El Día de los Muertos display at Instituto Espanol.
A couple of pics;
Sadly, I learned everything I know about this holiday from the excellent Pixar film, Coco. Then, to confirm I wasn't wandering straight into fiction, I read this article at Smithsonian Mag that confirms what I thought- the Pixar movie takes a lot of stuff about the holiday and boils it down to one version which is not entirely accurate but close enough for newbies like me to handle.
In a nutshell- the dead get to come and mingle with the living for one day a year, so let's party. There will be food and celebrations of family. There are "ofrendas" or offerings built with pictures of deceased loved ones, marigolds, a happy homecoming for the spirits on their "Day of the Dead."