Before this year,

I couldn’t tell you much about what Dia de los Muertos celebrated. A common misconception about this festival is that it mocks death. From what I’ve read, this is not what I’ve gathered. The Day of the Dead ritual has been around since before the Conquistadors came to the Americas, and was celebrated by native cultures (especially the Aztecs, as their calendar is the date by which the Dia was set) primarily in the region of today’s Mexico.  It was held at the end of August and was later moved to November 1-2 in an attempt to merge the holiday with All Soul’s Day, a Catholic holiday. The skulls, flowers and shrines commonly symbolized on this day represent the honored departed, life and rebirth, and the things the departed loved and celebrated in life. Indigenous cultures who practiced this ritual were not mocking death, they were celebrating life–the lives of their loved ones, which were and are believed to extend beyond this one. Some good resources I’ve found on this celebration are from dayofthedead.com, and, actually this about.com article is pretty informative as well. We’ll be celebrating this ritual, life and art on October 30 with Tweet Design’s annual Day of the Dead celebration, and participating artists’ coffins are due on the 22nd! I’ve been working on mine and have the labor-intensive part done at least.

This be the flyer for this year’s show.

Here’s some of the Dia de los Muertos inspired work we’ve got in Young Blood right now:

Leila H. of Illustrated Ink’s lovely prints

Crystal Morey’s coffin from last year’s show

Coin purse by DNA Creations

Mausoleum in Cozumel my dad and I stumbled upon a few years ago. There were decorated shrines and flowers in this cemetery in the backstreets of tourist-ville.