Dia De Los Muertos

[hummingbirdkiss]

I am overwhelmed by this project and need help !

I am installing an alter and dedicating it to the memory of the sweetest young man on the planet ..who was torn from my life last year unexpectedly.

has anyone here done an alter for this holiday?? any pictures? sugar skulls? how to do advice? discussion? ideas? ..there is tons of info on the internet but real life ideas..recipes ...creations ..decorations ..anything you may have to share would be greatly appreciated!

he would have really dug this and was in my opinion a most brilliant artist ..this alter will be put on exhibit at the local art museum so it needs to really represent

this is going to be one of the most emotional and hopefully healing things I have ever participated in and I have only a month to prepare for it

thanks in advance for any help you can offer

eta I am trying to get used to bifocals so please excuse my typos!!!

Edited September 17, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[emilyr]

Here are some links I found:

AZCentral: with a non-traditional display.

Olvera-Street: with a list of traditional food offerings.

Another AZCentral page: article about DDLM food.

About.com: Mexican and DDLM food. The candied pumpkin looks good. I may try it.

This is like a really beautiful tradition. I hope it helps. I'll be thinking of you!

(PS - Ray Bradbury wrote some really great short stories about his stay in Mexico and DDLM; you might look them up to get you in the mood.)

Edited September 17, 2008 by emilyr (log)

[Lindacakes]

I was in Mexico for Day of the Dead the year my brother and sister-in-law died and made an alter in my hotel room for them.

I'll have to dig up the picture and scan it.

I had sugar skulls, a sugar angel, pictures of them, two DOTD "toys" with couples in a coffin, flowers in yellow (marigolds)and hot pink (coxcomb), and fruit. I spelled their names out in nuts.

There are lots of books out there with DOTD photos -- even instructions on the Internet for making your own skulls. Often there is an arch constructed of dried grass, hay, straw, something like that. Die-cut paper flags in bright colors. Flowers and fruit, pictures, items that the deceased person enjoyed (beer and cigarettes figure prominently). I saw a lot of altars while I was there and they were all beautiful and colorful and uplifting.

I think it would be a great experience for you to do and for other people to see.

[hummingbirdkiss]

thanks so much you guys I appreciate it!

has anyone made sugar skulls ..my girl ordered the molds and I am waiting ..I have decorated them before but never made them from scratch ..I imagine they are like making sugar eggs? but again I never made those either!

no one else huh?

it is ok

I am off on this adventure of healing

my husband is going to build the alter starting next week and we are going to go through and start collecting things ...

deep breath ..this is going to be very hard for us ..

please wish us strength

I will post pictures if it feels right to do so ...and I think it will ..also if you are interested...

thank you,

Heidi

[Lindacakes]

It's taken me a while to find the photos, scan them, and upload to Image Gullet, but here they are.

What you'll see below is completely authentic to the Mexican experience (or at least as much as I could get as a tourist). The alters that I saw were one level, although many of the photos in the links above show multi-level alters. Mine is limited by my resources, I had nothing to add, everything was purchased at the Market of the Dead in Ocotlan. I took a group taxi (you squeeze into a car with eight other people) from Oaxaca to Ocotlan. I was told, perhaps by someone at my hotel, that the Market of the Dead in Ocotlan was the most authentic.

I did all my transactions without benefit of Spanish, quite successfully, although the going did get tough here and there. At one point, I could tell that the women in the market were discussing me, when a young man on a ladder looked down at me and asked in perfect English, "What are you looking for?" I didn't know -- I was hunting and gathering -- everything, down to the cloth on the table, was purchased at that market. Only the photograph was added. At another point, a woman I was buying flowers from was angry, I figured out that she had misunderstood my offered price. I was offering her four times what she was asking as the price was for the stem, not the bunch.

It was a mission of love and one I felt compelled to do, amidst the live turkeys tucked under arms and the piles of grasshoppers and black mole.

This is the flower section of the market. Marigolds and coxcomb. This is traditional.

This is the papoose-like bread -- arms crossed over the chest. In my alter you will see that I chose an alternate style, a round bread, but also with the gum paste faces. These are on little sticks like the Halloween cupcake figurines are here . . .

Sugar skulls. I chose a blue one and a pink one.

The altar -- the pressed tin is the mirror in the hotel room. The names Mark and Sharon are spelled out in peanuts (!) because there were piles of peanuts at the market, as well as all of the fruits that you see -- bananas, prickly pear, cherimoya . . .