Día de los Muertos

After last week's Tuesday I had the strong desire to get out, to seek the calmness of nature and to think of anything else but the election. On Thursday I had to walk to the mailbox to ship some Etsy orders and then decided to go to the old rural cemetery. Right next to it is the Memorial Park that I usually only walk through, but this time I took some detours and ended up in the "Mexican" area where I had never been before. I wonder why I had never explored it. Since it was right after Día de los Muertos the gravesites were richly decorated.

After walking along for several minutes I took out my phone and started to take pictures. I just couldn't pass this up, it was too beautiful and represents a Mexican tradition that celebrates the dead instead of mourning them. I had read a lot about the Day of the Dead and had seen pictures of Mexican cemeteries where families gathered at the gravesites to eat, dance and celebrate. I love it and thought it was so much more connected to life.

There were food and beverages on the graves, plastic flowers, toys, figurines, crosses... it seems that everything goes, whatever the person who had passed did love and cherish in his or her life. What a wonderful and thoughtful way to remember a loved one.

I know that I will go here again next year at the beginning of November.

We received the good news on Saturday morning and I had the feeling that a huge sigh of relief was traveling around the world. I heard that the church bells were ringing in my native Germany. We sure felt relieved and quite happy. Now we have to do the hard work of healing this nation.

El Dia de los Muertos

El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a Mexican holiday that lasts for two days (November 1 and 2), is this week's challenge over at Inspiration Avenue. During these two days, people pay their respect to their dead family members and friends. They visit the cemeteries, place food on the graves, make skulls and altars. I personally like this idea of including the members of your family who cannot be with you any longer and remember them in a festive way by celebrating.

I chose these ten tags for the occasion. I have this coffin template that I sized down for the "inside" tag. I cut the tags from black and orange cardstock. The grave tombs are a punch by Martha Stewart that embosses at the same time (RIP). The other images are stamps that I used.

Coffin shaped tags available in my Etsy shop