Day of the Dead 1

Posted on November 2, 2002 in Festivals Photos

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The blessing of the altars caught us by surprise: a small, stocky Asian fellow ran into the shop to tell some elderly ladies “Wait until you see what is coming down the street!” Everyone headed for the door and down the steps. An acolyte bearing a cross led a procession which included the chapel padre, two skeletons that looked like they’d been exhumed from the graves of Aztec high priests, and their handlers. They promenaded up the brick stairs and into the store, where all present crossed themselves as the celebrant intoned a brief prayer amid the copal incense which boiled out of the eyeholes of the skulls that the two skeletons were carrying.

After nearly 500 years of Christian dominance over his native land, Mictlantecutli knew his place. He crouched as he walked, never allowing his streaming feathers to stick higher than the top of the acolyte’s cross. When the party stopped to bless one of the marigold fringed shrines that local merchants had raised in honor of their dead, he knelt holding his skull on bended knee.

We followed them around Olvera Street while a small dark man checked a list and directed the holy marchers to the next altar. Anglos sat out on restaurant patios placidly munching on enchiladas, not quite understanding that this was not a Halloween affair. A few Goths looking for angsty pleasures walked right past the procession. They went to the main plaza, found the celebration too gay, and left before Mictlantecutli and his Christian masters blessed the civic organization altars encircling the bandstand.

Even the priest looked like he was having a good time.

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This will be a long series. I plan to include shots of dancing skeletons, altars, and store displays.

Lynn’s account is here.

My index to the gods of the death is here.