1. La Historia y tradiciones, del Dia de los muertos
The History, and traditions, of Day of the Dead

2. A history of dia de los muertos (Day of the Dead)
Dia de los Muertos is usually celebrated on All Souls Day, November 2nd. Celebrations date back as long as 3,000 to 4,000 years ago when the indigenous people of Mexico would celebrate the life of a loved one who had died. Cultures such as the Aztecs, Mayans and Olmecs believed that death was simply a continuance of life and so they embraced it rather than feared it.

3. Altares/Altars
On Dia de Los Muertos it is believed that souls come back to visit their loved ones who celebrate the event. Altars are usually built to honor their memories. Ofrendas are also set up in houses for dead relatives. Generally ofrendas are set up on a table covered with a tablecloth and papel picado. Ofrendas and altares are decorated with sugar skulls, candles, marigolds, and paper mache skeletons. Plates of food, beverages and other favorite items are placed on the altars as well as salt and bread which have significant meanings. Gravesites are sometimes decorated with hundreds of candles and arches of flowers. Some people work for days with armloads of flowers and make elaborate installations. Great pride is taken in honoring the deceased.

4. Procesiones/Processions
Hollywood Forever
Olvera Street

5. Sugar/skulls
Sugar art was brought to the New World by Italian missionaries in the 17th century. Mexico, abundant in sugar production and too poor to buy fancy imported European church decorations, learned quickly from the friars how to make sugar art for their religious festivals. Clay molded sugar skulls go back to the Colonial Period 18th century. Sugar skulls represented a departed soul, had the name written on the forehead and was placed on the home ofrenda, or gravestone, to honor the return of a particular spirit. Sugar skull art reflects the folk art style of big happy smiles, colorful icing and sparkly tin and glittery adornments.

6. Disfrazes/costumes
One tradition people participate in is painting their face and/or dressing up like skeletons, such as “El Catrin” or “La Catrina”. People will sometimes make sugar skulls decorated with colorful flowers and the name of the honored deceased.

7. La/catrina
La Catrina has become the favorite symbol of Dia de Los Muertos. She was designed by Jose Guadalupe Posada in the early 1900s. She is an elegant skeleton lady who has become the referential image of death in Mexico. It is common to see her embodied as part of the celebrations of Day of the Dead throughout the country. She has become a motive for the creation of handcrafts made from clay or other materials.

8. Jose/Guadalupe/Posada
José Guadalupe Posada (1851–1913) was a Mexican illustrator known for his satirical and politically acute calaveras. Deriving from the Spanish word for ‘skulls’, these calaveras were illustrations featuring skeletons which would, after Posada’s death, become closely associated with the mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. Most of these calaveras were published in inexpensive literature for the lower classes. On January 20th 1913, 3 years after the start of the Mexican Revolution, José Guadalupe Posada died at his home. He was unknown and penniless and buried in an unmarked grave. It was only years later in the 1920s that his work became recognised on a national and international level due to the French artist Jean Charlot who described Posada as “printmaker to the Mexican people”.

9. /Videos/
Day of the Dead
Film Short
Self Help Graphics
Book of Life

10. Dia de los muertos and art
Speed Drawing
Calaca Tree Stop Motion Animation
Doodle

11. Pan/De/Muerto
In celebration of Mexico’s Day of the Dead, this bread if often shaped into skulls or round loaves with strips of dough rolled out and attached to resemble bones.
Ingredients:
½ Cup of butter
½ Cup milk
½ Cup water
5 to 5 ½ Cups flour
2 Packages dry yeast
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Whole anise seed
½ Cup sugar
4 Eggs
In a saucepan, over medm flame, heat the butter, milk and water until very warm but not boiling.
Meanwhile measure out 1 – 1 ½ cups flour and set the rest aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1-1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and sugar. Beat in the warm liquid until well combined. Add the eggs and beat in another 1 cup of flour. Continue adding more flour until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead on lightly floured board for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.

12. Pan de muerto cont’d
Lightly grease a bowl and place dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours. Punch the dough down and shape into loaves resembling skulls, skeletons or round loaves with “bones” placed ornamentally around the top. Let these loaves rise for 1 hour.
Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 40 mins. Remove from oven and paint on glaze.
Glaze:
½ cup sugar
1/3 Cup fresh orange juice.
2 tbsps. Grated orange zest
Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush.
If desired sprinkle on colored sugar while glaze is still damp.

13. All Saints Day
November 1st is All Saints Day, which is celebrated in Mexico in conjunction with All Souls’ Day. This day is also known as “Dia de los Innocentes” (Day of the Innocents), it honors deceased children and infants.

14. Ullambana or Hungry Ghost Festival
A traditional Buddhist festival held in Asian countries. In the Chinese calendar the Ghost Festival is held on the 15th night of the 7th month. On this day, Ghost Day, (the whole month is known as the Ghost Month) spirits come and visit the living. Buddhists perform rituals and activities include preparing food offerings, burning incense and joss paper, which is like papier mache and is in the form of clothes, gold and other fine goods. Fancy meals are served with empty seats for each of the deceased, therefore treating them as if they are alive. Some rituals include releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water so that they might guide lost spirits back to their loved ones.

15. Emery Park Celebrates Dia de Los muertos!