Dia de muertos... well...not anymore, but still

Ok, so I've been meaning to make this post all day long and haven't been able to do so, have been busy with work and designing an intervention plan on low-selfsteem patients, yeah I know not an excuse, but I do this as my hobby so now that have the time will tell you a little about the day before, it was completely awsome!! spent the whole day on the street, been years since I last celebrated Día de muertos and the wait was totally worth it.

First got to be at a small exhibition about skulls, now, we usually paint skulls with the names of our deceased and put them at an altar, usually they're made of sugar or a new variant -introduced about 10 years ago- chocolate, however this ones where made of cardboard and given to various artists to decorate, they look like this

There were even more -like 30 of these- and they all looked incredible -yeah, mexicans and ours skulls (calaveras) can't get enough of them- the first one is one that  enjoy a whole bunch, it has written on its forehead "I'm in paradise...and with lots of time to enjoy it", second one's got flowers coming out of its eyes, which are the yellow flowers with which we decorate offerings, also has got a demon and an angel playing by the side of a flower-made cross. Third one has got an angel coming out of its left eye and a demon coming out of its mouth, decorated with a crown of leaves and smaller skulls, last one is my brother's favorite, it looks like it's made of dirt and a small branch is coming out of it, they all have their own meaning, but I'll figure them out. There are more of these but those where the ones I liked the most.

On the evening we went to get a look at Ofrendas made by university students, this year they were all made in honor of Edgar Alan Poe, so they all had something related to him in one way or another, they had quotes from his books and scenes too, what really impressed me was this one skull

You see all the colors and the small crow in the tree, that's just awesome, the floor filled with smaller calaveras, it's just great. Now I realize it must be weird reading about someone so excited writing about death and skulls and offers for death people, but that's just tradition over here, you can't stop death, but don't need to be afraid of it, or maybe it's because we're afraid of death that we make jokes about her.
Funny thing though, all this comes from a mixture of aztec traditions and Christianity brought by spanish people, Aztecs were used to bring sacrifices to their Gods -yeah, we used to offer the hearts of people to Gods, but it was an honor to die in such a way, not a torture like many people think and offerings where selected to a few, not war prisioners, they were turned into slaves- and along came the spanish, Gods changed, rules changed, sacrifices changed, now instead of the blood and heart of a human sacrifices became flowers, bread, candies and chocolate and most important of all gold. So tradition's the same, similar sacrifices, different God.
So in short, Yesterday was great, so good not even the Catrina -that's how we call Death and it's a she- lost it

And of course "El  Pan de muerto" -death bread- couldn't be missing for this much expected occasion. Have more photos but as I'm running out of Scotch-tape will have to save them for the next post, right now I'm just really falling asleep. So I'll catch you soon.

Love to all
Me