Day of the Dead: Celebrating our Past, Present, and Future

Accessories and decorations are a main element of every ofrenda. They are also an important part of the Mexican (and central American) household. 

Music and dancing are important elements of the Day of the Dead tradition.  Mariachi, corridos, jarocho, traditional sones are among the music that is performed to honor the spirits. In Mexico, traditional dances such as La Danza de los Viejitos (the dance of the little old men) and La Danza de los Tecuanes (the dance of the tigers/jaguars) are also performed.  They add color and sound to the Day of the Dead celebrations.

José Guadalupe Posada

The calavera (“skull” or, more broadly, “skeleton”) is one of the most recognizable features of the Day of the Dead celebrations. Yet another equally important calavera associated with the festivities is a more figurative variety: the literary calevera, a satirical poem meant to highlight the shortcomings of a living person, often accompanied by an illustration. The literary calaveras are short, rhyming poems, usually composed of four to twelves lines whose verse mocks the victim’s perceived weaknesses.

José Guadalupe Posada (1851-1913) was a Mexican illustrator whose engravings of satirical calaveras, which accompanied these humoristic poems, have become permanently associated with Day of the Dead imagery and literary culture[...]Posada’s calaveras reminded readers that life was short and that everyone, whether rich or poor, famous or anonymous, was ultimately made of the same bones.

His most famous image is perhaps his catrina (catrin, elegant or dandy), a female figure whose fancy clothes (typically a hat with flowers and a fashionable dress) mocked the upper-classes for their vanity. The skeleton’s hat was a fashionable accessory that showed a desire among the Mexican elite to copy European fashions. Posada’s catrina has become an icon of modern Day of the Dead imagery.

Continue reading, Funny Bones, Literary and artistic calaveras from Mexico’s most famous illustrator, José Guadalupe Posada (1851-1913)

La Catrina

The character, created by Posada in 1913, has traveled around the world and represents the way that we, as Mexicans, understand and represent death. Posada's La Catrina was just a face with a hat, symbolizing someone or something make-believe. It was Diego Rivera who gave the skull a body, in the mural "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park." The skull is dressed in a European style, with a dress, stole and a large hat, representing Posada's critique of the society of the time.

However, the image of La Catrina also has pre-Hispanic influences, evoking characters such as Mictlantecuhtli, the god of death. The image of La Catrina is also associated with the sugar skulls, which are an offering to the dead. La Catrina is a symbol of syncretism between pre-Hispanic and colonial times; the Mexican and the European. It is also a figure that has transcended borders.

Continue reading, La Catrina: the character not to be missed, various artists around the world have been inspired by José Guadalupe Posada's illustration to recreate the Day of the Dead tradition