So here's a little list of things I love about Día de los muertos. I love the little sugary calaveritas. They are so cute and when I was little we'd always get some and I was a little afraid of eating them. I don't really like the way they taste because I don't love sweet things, but I still think they are precious.
Of course I love ofrendas, I just said so. But seriously, they are so beautiful. In Chicago, we used to go on field trips to the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, which is now called the National Museum of Mexican Art, to go look at ofrendas. They were amazing, seriously. We never really made ofrendas but my mother made one when I was around ten. It was tiny but really pretty, and it's just such a nice idea. It's more than just about looking nice, it's the whole thought behind it. It's such a nice tradition, I just really love it.
Pan de Muertos, I really like it. I don't know what else to say about it except that when I was little I thought it was made from the bones of the dead and so I was scared to eat it. When I quickly realized that wasn't the case, I was all about eating it. It's bread, I love bread. Period.
I also really love cempásuchil. They are such pretty flowers! They are orange and yellowish and just so nice. They're marigolds, and I think they are some of my favorite flowers. When I was little I also thought that cempásuchil was the same as flor de calabaza, which are squash blossoms. I got really scared because cempásuchil was associated with Day of the Dead and I thought it was creepy that we were eating that. Again, I was wrong, and this made me really happy. Because I love squash blossom soup and squash blossom quesadillas so much that I would've been a really sad kid if I couldn't eat them anymore.
I could probably keep going with all the things I love about this holiday, but I won't. I will say that my mom used to read me this book about Day of the Dead when I was little and it was one of my favorites. I like the idea of writing little poems for people, and going to the cemetery to visit their graves, and it's just all so pretty, really. And I don't know if people really understand it a lot of the time, and I was afraid of making this post because I didn't want people to think I was saying it was just some silly little holiday that was cute, because it's not.
I almost made an ofrenda this year but I didn't think I had anywhere to put it. Maybe I'll just light some candles tomorrow night though. We'll see. Día de los muertos is always a little sad, but it also makes me smile.
Love, María
I think Día de los Muertos is so lindo, but maybe we only think that because we both have a strange penchant for the bittersweet.
ReplyDeleteThinking about it almost makes me like this time of year, thanks María!